“Painting, by its nature, cannot provide an object of simultaneous collective reception... as film is able to do today... And while efforts have been made to present paintings to the masses in galleries and salons, this mode of reception gives the masses no means of organizing and regulating their response. Thus, the same public which reacts progressively to a slapstick comedy inevitably displays a backward attitude toward Surrealism.” GivingMeanHas BeensMadeTodayAbleFilmEffortAttitudeComedyObjectsPaintingMassResponseCollectivesDisplayGallerySurrealismReceptionSimultaneousSalonsSlapstick Author:Walter Benjamin
“Man is the namer; by this we recognize that through him pure language speaks. All nature, insofar as it communicates itself, communicates itself in language, and so finally in man. Hence, he is the lord of nature and can give names to things. Only through the linguistic being of things can he get beyond himself and attain knowledge of them-in the name. God's creation is completed when things receive their names from man, from whom in name language alone speaks.” MenGivingNamesSpeakLanguageLordCreationPureCommunicateGod's Creation Author:Walter Benjamin
“In the end, we get older, we kill everyone who loves us through the worries we give them, through the troubled tenderness we inspire in them, and the fears we ceaselessly cause.” GivingEndsCausesWorryInspireTenderness Author:Walter Benjamin
“Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.” GivingShockReceiver Book:One-Way Street Source: One-Way Street
“All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative as the giving of alms, intellect and morality, consistency and principles are miserably inadequate.” GivingMatterTimePrinciplesMoralityHolyProveIntellectConsistencyHonoredBeggarInadequateAlms Author:Walter Benjamin
