We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. Marshall McLuhan More Quotes by Marshall McLuhan More Quotes From Marshall McLuhan My main theme is the extension of the nervous system in the electric age, and thus, the complete break with five thousand years of mechanical technology. This I state over and over again. I do not say whether it is a good or bad thing. To do so would be meaningless and arrogant. Marshall McLuhan technologyageyears Except for light, all other media come in pairs, with one acting as the "content" of the other, obscuring the operation of both. Marshall McLuhan mediaactinglight One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable them to perceive the element they live in. Marshall McLuhan environmentelementswater I am not a "culture critic" because I am not in any way interested in classifying cultural forms. I am a metaphysician, interested in the life of the forms and their surprising modalities. That is why I have no interest in the academic world. Marshall McLuhan culturewayworld Ours is a brand-new world of allatonceness [all-at-once-ness]. 'Time' has ceased, 'space' has vanished. We now live in a global village ... a simultaneous happening. ... The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village. Marshall McLuhan spacescienceworld The medium is the message" because it is the medium that shapes and controls the search and form of human associations and action. Marshall McLuhan communicationshapesassociation The subliminal depths of radio are charged with the resonating echoes of tribal horns and antique drums. This is inherent in the very nature of this medium, with its power to turn the Marshall McLuhan antiquesechoesdepth In experimental art, men are given the exact specifications of coming violence to their own psyches from their own counter-irritant or technology... But the counter-irritant usually proves a greater plague than the initial irritant, like a drug habit. Marshall McLuhan technologymenart The copy of an ad is merely a punning gag to distract the critical faculties while the image of the product goes to work on the hypnotized viewer. Those who have spent their lives protesting about 'false and misleading ad copy' are godsends to advertisers, as teetotalers are to brewers, and moral censors are to books and films. The protesters are the best acclaimers and accelerators. Since the advent of pictures, the job of the ad copy is as incidental and latent as the 'meaning' of a poem is to a poem, or the words of a song are to a song. Marshall McLuhan songjobsbook To say that a body or its gravitational field 'bends in space' in its vicinity is the discuss visual space in acoustic terms. Marshall McLuhan spacebodyfields The printing press was at first mistaken for an engine of immortality by everybody except Shakespeare. Marshall McLuhan printingimmortalityfirsts I am a Christian according to my conscience in belief,in purpose and wish;Mnot of course by the orthodox standard. But I am content, and have a feeling of trust and safety. Marshall McLuhan moneysimplechristian The winner is one who knows when to drop out in order to get in touch. Marshall McLuhan winnerknowsorder There is no more great men; there is only great committees. Marshall McLuhan politicspoliticalmen Only a fraction of the history of literacy has been typographic. Marshall McLuhan fractionsliteracyhas-beens It is critical vision alone which can mitigate the unimpeded operation of the automatic. Marshall McLuhan operationsvisioncriticism Any expensive ad represents the toil, attention, testing, wit, art, and skill of many people. Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials. Marshall McLuhan writingattitudeart Technologies themselves, regardless of content, produce a hemispheric bias in the users. Marshall McLuhan biasproducetechnology The method of our time is to use not a single but multiple models for exploration. Marshall McLuhan methodexplorationuse Radio affects most intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and the listener. Marshall McLuhan communicationofferingworld
