All Walter Benjamin Quotes
- He who asks fortune-tellers the future unwittingly forfeits an inner intimation of coming events that is a thousand times more exact than anything they may… Alert
- Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the stroller of his conviction. Armed
- Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. Acquiring
- A bearer of news of death appears to himself as very important. His feeling - even against all reason - makes him a messenger from… All
- The book borrower...proves himself to be an inveterate collector of books not so much by the fervor with which he guards his borrowed treasures...as by… Book
- Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the present.… Abortion
- Every monument of civilization is a monument of barbarism Barbarism
- 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… Brake
- It is only for those without hope that hope is given. Given
- Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars [translated from Trauerspiel, 1928]. Constellations
- 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… Book
- How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books! Book
- There is no document of civilization that is not at the same time a document of barbarism. Barbarism
- The destructive character knows only one watchword: make room; only one activity: clearing away ... The destructive character is young and cheerful. For destroying rejuvenates… Activity
- All efforts to make politics aesthetic culminate in one thing, war. Aesthetic
- Let no thought pass incognito, and keep your notebook as strictly as the authorities keep their register of aliens. Aliens
- Books, too, begin like the week – with a day of rest in memory of their creation. The preface is their Sunday. Begin
- You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps - his tastes, his interest, his habits. Book
- Any order is a balancing act of extreme precariousness. Act
- I came into the world under the sign of Saturn -- the star of the slowest revolution, the planet of detours and delays. Came