Art teaches us to see into things. Folk art and kitsch allow us to see outward from within things. Walter Benjamin More Quotes by Walter Benjamin More Quotes From Walter Benjamin Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. Walter Benjamin receivershockgiving All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war. Walter Benjamin aestheticeffortwar 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. Walter Benjamin namesgivingmen During long periods of history, the mode of human sense perception changes with humanity’s entire mode of existence. The manner in which human sense perception is organized, the medium in which it is accomplished, is determined not only by nature but by historical circumstances as well Walter Benjamin historicalhumanitylong 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. Walter Benjamin memoriesmeanpast Less and less frequently do we encounter people with the ability to tell a tale properly. More and more often there is embarrassment all around when the wish to hear a story is expressed. It is as if something that seemed inalienable to us, the securest among our possessions, were taken from us: the ability to exchange our experiences...Experience has fallen in value. And it looks as if it is continuing to fall into bottomlessness. Walter Benjamin takenpeoplefall Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. Walter Benjamin ritualdependenceart True translation is transparent: it does not obscure the original, does not stand in its light, but rather allows pure language, as if strengthened by its own medium, to shine even more fully on the original. Walter Benjamin shininglightdoe The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it was once the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales. Whenever good counsel was at a premium, the fairy tale had it, and where the need was greatest, its aid was nearest. This need was created by myth. The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest. Walter Benjamin storieschildrenneeds Any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information-hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark of bad translations. Walter Benjamin hallmarkinformationlanguage We do not always proclaim loudly the most important thing we have to say. Nor do we always privately share it with those closest to us, our intimate friends, those who have been most devotedly ready to receive our confession. Walter Benjamin confessionintimateimportant Never stop writing because you have run out of ideas. Fill the lacunae of inspiration by tidily copying out what is already written. Walter Benjamin inspirationwritingrunning The film is the first art form capable of demonstrating how matter plays tricks on man. Walter Benjamin playmenart Death is the sanction of everything that the storyteller can tell. He has borrowed his authority from death. Walter Benjamin storytellingstoriesdeath He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest. Walter Benjamin vestsdresseslying Marx says that revolutions are the locomotives of world history. But the situation may be quite different. Perhaps revolutions are not the train ride, but the human race grabbing for the emergency brake. Walter Benjamin differentraceworld Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like. Walter Benjamin writingbookpeople Allegories are, in the realm of thought, what ruins are in the realm of things. Walter Benjamin allegoryrealmsruins The power of a text when it is read is different from the power it has when it is copied out. Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of day-dreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command. Walter Benjamin readingdreambook Like ultraviolet rays memory shows to each man in the book of life a script that invisibly and prophetically glosses the text. Walter Benjamin menmemoriesbook
