Walter Benjamin Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.”

“The idea that happiness could have a share in beauty would be too much of a good thing.”

“Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.”

“Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines: one does not go up to a turbine and pour machine oil over it; one applies a little to hidden spindles and joints that one has to know.”

“Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.”

“It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.”

“Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.”

“Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.”

“Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the stroller of his conviction.”

“The art of the critic in a nutshell: to coin slogans without betraying ideas. The slogans of an inadequate criticism peddle ideas to fashion.”