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Quote by Theodor Adorno

“In the end, the writer is not even allowed to live in his writing.”

Quote by Theodor Adorno

Book:Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

Work

Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

Hermann Broch's Minima Moralia is a collection of philosophical essays that delve into the intricacies of human existence and the challenges of contemporary life. The essays, written in German and translated into English, are characterized by their introspective nature and their exploration of the author's personal experiences. Broch's work is known for its depth of thought and its ability to connect philosophical ideas with everyday life. more

Author

Theodor Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist. He is renowned for his critical theory, co-developed with Max Horkheimer and other members of the Frankfurt School. Adorno's research focused on the analysis of modern society, culture, and the influence of mass culture on individuals. more

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“The phrase, the world wants to be deceived, has become truer than had ever been intended. People are not only, as the saying goes, falling for the swindle; if it guarantees them even the most fleeting gratification they desire a deception which is nonetheless transparent to them. They force their eyes shut and voice approval, in a kind of self-loathing, for what is meted out to them, knowing fully the purpose for which it is manufactured. Without admitting it they sense that their lives would be completely intolerable as soon as they no longer clung to satisfactions which are none at all.”

Source: The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture

“It is Proust's courtesy to spare the reader the embarrassment of believing himself cleverer than the author.”

Believe Reader Spares Courtesy Embarrassment Proust

Book:Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

Source: Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

“On their way toward modern science human beings have discarded meaning. The concept is replaced by the formula, the cause by rules and probability.”

Way Humans Causes Human Beings Modern Concepts Formulas Replaced Probability Modern Science Discarded

Book:Dialectic of Enlightenment

Source: Dialectic of Enlightenment

“The noiseless din that we have long known in dreams, booms at us in waking hours from newspaper headlines.”

Long Dream Hours Known Newspapers Waking Headlines Newspaper Headlines

Book:Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

Source: Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

“Humanity had to inflict terrible injuries on itself before the self, the identical, purpose-directed, masculine character of human beings was created, and something of this process is repeated in every childhood.”

Humans Self Character Purpose Humanity Process Human Beings Childhood Terrible Injury Masculine Identical

Book:Dialectic of Enlightenment

Source: Dialectic of Enlightenment

“Advancing bourgeois society liquidates memory, time, recollection as irrational leftovers of the past.”

Past Memories Irrational Recollection Bourgeois Advancing Leftovers

Author:Theodor Adorno

“The taboos that constitute a man's intellectual stature, often sedimented experiences and unarticulated insights, always operate against inner impulses that he has learned to condemn, but which are so strong that only an unquestioning and unquestioned authority can hold them in check.”

Men Strong Authority Intellectual Insight Checks Impulse Taboo Stature

Author:Theodor Adorno

“It is incumbent upon philosophy ... to provide a refuge for freedom. Not that there is any hope that it could break the political tendencies that are throttling freedom throughout the world both from within and without and whose violence permeates the very fabric of philosophical argumentation.”

World Philosophy Political Break Violence Philosophical Tendencies Refuge Fabric Incumbents Argumentation

Book:Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords

Source: Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords

“In the nineteenth century the Germans painted their dream and the outcome was invariably vegetable. The French needed only to paint a vegetable and it was already a dream.”

Dream Century Needed Paint Outcomes Vegetables Nineteenth Century

Book:Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

Source: Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

“What is or is not the jargon is determined by whether the word is written in an intonation which places it transcendently in opposition to its own meaning; by whether the individual words are loaded at the expense of the sentence, its propositional force, and the thought content.”

Individual Force Written Determined Sentences Opposition Expenses Loaded Jargon Intonation

Book:Adorno

Source: Adorno