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Quote by Walter Benjamin

“I would like to metamorphose into a mouse-mountain.”

Author

Walter Benjamin, born on July 15, 1892, and died on September 26, 1940, was a prominent German literary critic whose works profoundly influenced 20th-century literary criticism and cultural theory. more

“There were times, especially when I was traveling for 'Eat, Pray, Love,' when, I swear to God, I would feel this weight of my female ancestors, all those Swedish farmwives from beyond the grave who were like, 'Go! Go to Naples! Eat more pizza! Go to India, ride an elephant! Do it! Swim in the Indian Ocean. Read those books. Learn a language.'”

Feels Book Language Praying Ocean Female Weight India Graves Indian Swim Ancestor Swear Elephants Pizza Pray Love Swedish Eat Love Pray Naples Swear To God

Author:Elizabeth Gilbert

“There is no muse of philosophy, nor is there one of translation.”

Philosophy Muse Translations

Book:Illuminations

Source: Illuminations

“For me, it was like this: pronounced antipathy to conversing about matters of practical life, the future, dates, politics. You are fixated on the intellectual sphere as a man possessed may be fixated on the sexual: under its spell, sucked into it.”

Men May Matter Intellectual Practicals Spells Spheres Possessed Antipathy Practical Life

Book:On Hashish

Source: On Hashish

“To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it "the way it really was"...It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger.”

Way Mean Doe Moments Past Memories Danger Flash

Author:Walter Benjamin

“The Messiah comes not only as the redeemer, he comes as the subduer of Antichrist. Only that historian will have the gift of fanning the spark of hope in the past who is firmly convinced that even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he wins. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.”

Ifs Past Winning Enemy Safe Convinced Historian Sparks Messiah Redeemer Antichrist

Book:Illuminations

Source: Illuminations

“The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the "state of emergency" in which we live is not the exception but the rule.”

States Teach Tradition Exception Oppressed Emergencies

Book:Selected Writings: 1938-1940

Source: Selected Writings: 1938-1940

“Thinking involves not only the flow of thoughts, but their arrest as well.”

Thinking Wells Flow

Book:Illuminations

Source: Illuminations

“The nourishing fruit of the historically understood contains time as a precious but tasteless seed.”

Understood Fruit Seeds

Book:Illuminations

Source: Illuminations

“The present, which, as a model of Messianic time, comprises the entire history of mankind in an enormous abridgment, coincides with the stature which the history of mankind has in the universe.”

Universe Mankind Models Enormous Stature

Book:Illuminations

Source: Illuminations

Quote by Walter Benjamin

Author

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