Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Walter Benjamin

Quote by Walter Benjamin

Author

Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin

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

You May Also Like

“It is hard to think of any work of art of which one can say 'this saved the life of one Jew, one Vietnamese, one Cambodian'. Specific books, perhaps; but as far as one can tell, no paintings or sculptures. The difference between us and the artists of the 1920's is that they they thought such a work of art could be made. Perhaps it was a certain naivete that made them think so. But it is certainly our loss that we cannot.”

ThinkingArtMadeBookHardArtistCertainDifferencesLossPaintingJewSavedWorks Of ArtSculptureVietnameseNaivete
Author:Robert Hughes
Create image

“I have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes... in a total misapprehension of character at some point or other: fancying people so much more gay or grave, or ingenious or stupid than they really are, and I can hardly tell why, or in what the deception originated. Sometimes one is guided by what other people say of them, without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge.”

PeopleGivingKindI CanSometimesCharacterMistakeStupidJudgingGayOneselfGravesDeceptionDeliberateIngenious
Book:Sense and Sensibility: Ignatius Critical Editions
Create image

“First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you?”

IfsKnowsMenFirstsPersonsHelpingLastsIndividualCommonExistenceResponsibilityDestinyDoubtFailingIdentityFindingsResponsibleSalvationWho You AreWork OutWho I AmAnalysisMeaning Of LifeNo DoubtPersistShiftingTrembling
Book:No Man Is an Island
Create image

“Reading is human contact, and the range of our human contacts is what makes us what we are. Just imagine you live the life of a long-distance truck driver. The books that you read are like the travelers you take into your cab. If you give lifts to people who are cultured and profound, you'll learn a lot from them. If you pick up fools, you'll turn into a fool yourself.”

PeopleIfsGivingHumansLongBookTurnsReadingImagineFoolPicksDistanceProfoundContactLiftsRangeLive LifeDriversTravelerTruckLong DistanceCabTruck Driver
Author:Victor Pelevin
Create image

“The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man’s mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others.”

MenWorldWayMindFactsOrderUniverseLosesExistenceCreationThis WorldRepeatsStringsConceptionCompassMazesLatitude
Book:Blood Meridian: Picador Classic
Create image