--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Man's gift of seeing resemblances is…" description: "\"“Man's gift of seeing resemblances is nothing other than a rudiment of the powerful compulsion in former times to become and behave like something else..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b05/walter-benjamin-1723_compulsion_man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-not_521202.jpg" --- # Man's gift of seeing resemblances is nothing other than a… ![“Man's gift of seeing resemblances is nothing other than a rudiment of the powerful compulsion in former times to become and behave like something else.” quote by Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b05/walter-benjamin-1723_compulsion_man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-not_521202.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b05/walter-benjamin-1723_compulsion_man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-not_521202.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b05/walter-benjamin-1723_compulsion_man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-not_521202.jpg) > ““Man's gift of seeing resemblances is nothing other than a rudiment of the powerful compulsion in former times to become and behave like something else.”” [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Seeing similarities is a primitive urge that drives us to imitate and adopt other forms. **In simple terms:** Imitation stems from noticing resemblances. Key Takeaway Be aware of the roots of imitation. Themes art culture imitation identity Mood analytical philosophical Type cultural critique theory When to use this quote - creative projects - cultural analysis - education Key Concepts psychology aesthetics social influence Questions to Reflect On - Why do we gravitate toward familiar patterns? - When does imitation become harmful? A Different Perspective Imitation can suppress originality if unchecked. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Compulsion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/compulsion/) [Powerful Compulsion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/powerful-compulsion-1787652/) [Resemblances](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/resemblances-1024061/) [Resemblances Rudiment](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/resemblances-rudiment-4397022/) [Seeing Resemblances](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seeing-resemblances-4397021/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) ## Related quotes > [Kindness is more powerful than compulsion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-r-schwab/kindness-is-more-powerful-than-compulsion/) [Charles R. Schwab](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-r-schwab/) > [“Not that I would reject those resemblances of the human figure which are engraven in brass or marbles but as their originals are frail…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tacitus/not-that-i-would-reject-those-resemblances-of-the-human-figure-which/) [Tacitus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tacitus/) > [Resemblances are the shadows of differences. Different people see different similarities and similar differences.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vladimir-nabokov/resemblances-are-the-shadows-of-differences-different-people-see/) [Vladimir Nabokov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vladimir-nabokov/) > [HAVE ANYONE EVER NOTICE THIS BLUE IVY AND DRAKE RESEMBLANCES ?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/asheya/have-anyone-ever-notice-this-blue-ivy-and-drake-resemblances/) [Asheya](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/asheya/) > [The lover never sees personal resemblances in his mistress to her kindred or to others. His friends find in her a likeness to hermother,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/the-lover-never-sees-personal-resemblances-in-his-mistress-to-her/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [“Your own family resemblances are a frustrating code, most easily read by those who know you least.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barbara-kingsolver/your-own-family-resemblances-are-a-frustrating-code-most-easily-read/) [Barbara Kingsolver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barbara-kingsolver/) > [“I find myself nursing keen regret at probably not being able to live long enough to explain properly to you what I do not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/comte-de-lautr-amont/i-find-myself-nursing-keen-regret-at-probably-not-being-able-to-live/) [Comte de Lautréamont](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/comte-de-lautr-amont/) > [Dreams are like portraits; and we find they please because they are confessed resemblances.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-crabbe/dreams-are-like-portraits-and-we-find-they-please-because-they-are/) [George Crabbe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-crabbe/) > [“In every important way we are such secrets from one another, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marilynne-robinson/in-every-important-way-we-are-such-secrets-from-one-another-and-i-do/) [Marilynne Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marilynne-robinson/) > [Knowledge comes from noticing resemblances and recurrences in the events that happen around us.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/knowledge-comes-from-noticing-resemblances-and-recurrences-in-the/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [When she is older she will see in these resemblances a regrettable uniformity among individuals (they all stop at the same spots to kiss,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/milan-kundera/when-she-is-older-she-will-see-in-these-resemblances-a-regrettable/) [Milan Kundera](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/milan-kundera/) > [Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/only-he-who-can-view-his-own-past-as-an-abortion-sprung-from/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/only-he-who-can-view-his-own-past-as-an-abortion-sprung-from-2/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [“I take my actions because of my passion not because of compulsion.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amit-kalantri/i-take-my-actions-because-of-my-passion-not-because-of-compulsion/) [Amit Kalantri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amit-kalantri/) > [Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature... what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action. If you know these…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-bernbach/nothing-is-so-powerful-as-an-insight-into-human-nature-what/) [William Bernbach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-bernbach/) ## More by Walter Benjamin > [All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/all-efforts-to-render-politics-aesthetic-culminate-in-one-thing-war/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [“The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than of convictions, and of such facts as have scarcely…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/the-construction-of-life-is-at-present-in-the-power-of-facts-far-more/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [“It should be pointed out that certain correlative concepts retain their meaning, and possibly their foremost significance, if they are referred exclusively to man.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/it-should-be-pointed-out-that-certain-correlative-concepts-retain/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Allegories are, in the realm of thought, what ruins are in the realm of things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/allegories-are-in-the-realm-of-thought-what-ruins-are-in-the-realm-of/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Things are only mannequins and even the great world-historical events are only costumes beneath which they exchange glances with nothingness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/things-are-only-mannequins-and-even-the-great-world-historical-events/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [“to great writers, finished works weigh lighter than those fragments on which they labor their entire lives.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/to-great-writers-finished-works-weigh-lighter-than-those-fragments-on/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/all-religions-have-honored-the-beggar-for-he-proves-that-in-a-matter/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/the-camera-introduces-us-to-unconscious-optics-as-does-psychoanalysis/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/during-long-periods-of-history-the-mode-of-human-sense-perception/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Melancholy betrays the world for the sake of knowledge. But in its tenacious self-absorption it embraces dead objects in its contemplation, in order to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/melancholy-betrays-the-world-for-the-sake-of-knowledge-but-in-its/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [For what is the program of the bourgeois parties? A bad poem on springtime, filled to bursting with metaphors.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/for-what-is-the-program-of-the-bourgeois-parties-a-bad-poem-on/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [There was the pedestrian who wedged himself into the crowd, but there was also the flneur who demanded elbow room and was unwilling to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/there-was-the-pedestrian-who-wedged-himself-into-the-crowd-but-there/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [The power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out. Only the copied text thus commands the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/the-power-of-a-text-is-different-when-it-is-read-from-when-it-is/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the stroller of his conviction.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/quotations-in-my-work-are-like-wayside-robbers-who-leap-out-armed-and/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Each morning the day lies like a fresh shirt on our bed; this incomparably fine, incomparably tightly woven tissue of pure prediction fits us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/each-morning-the-day-lies-like-a-fresh-shirt-on-our-bed-this/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) [Explore all 207 Walter Benjamin quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) ## More Compulsion quotes > [Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature... what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action. If you know these…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-bernbach/nothing-is-so-powerful-as-an-insight-into-human-nature-what/) [William Bernbach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-bernbach/) > [“I take my actions because of my passion not because of compulsion.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amit-kalantri/i-take-my-actions-because-of-my-passion-not-because-of-compulsion/) [Amit Kalantri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amit-kalantri/) > [The individual, by means of the discipline imposed on him by sport, not only plays and finds relaxation from the various compulsions to which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacques-ellul/the-individual-by-means-of-the-discipline-imposed-on-him-by-sport-not/) [Jacques Ellul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacques-ellul/) > [For many people it's Facebook, or sports on TV, whatever it is. I have my own demons that I battle. But whatever they are,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/for-many-people-it-s-facebook-or-sports-on-tv-whatever-it-is-i-have/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/plato/knowledge-which-is-acquired-under-compulsion-obtains-no-hold-on-the/) [Plato](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/plato/) > [I think it's in our nature to try to get beyond that next horizon. I think that when we as a species are scratching…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ron-howard/i-think-it-s-in-our-nature-to-try-to-get-beyond-that-next-horizon-i/) [Ron Howard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ron-howard/) > [Those of us with this ancient compulsion to tell stories sometimes start with a single kernel of something.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-p-jones/those-of-us-with-this-ancient-compulsion-to-tell-stories-sometimes/) [Edward P. Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-p-jones/) > [You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-mitchell/you-develop-an-instant-global-consciousness-a-people-orientation-an/) [Edgar Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-mitchell/) > [I found myself compelled - like this weird, shameful compulsion - to draw cute animals.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lynda-barry/i-found-myself-compelled-like-this-weird-shameful-compulsion-to-draw/) [Lynda Barry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lynda-barry/) > [Why am I always at war with myself? Why have I told, as if upon compulsion, what I knew all along I ought to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-dickens/why-am-i-always-at-war-with-myself-why-have-i-told-as-if-upon/) [Charles Dickens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-dickens/) > [It is true that the virtues which are less esteemed and practiced now--independence, self-reliance, and the willingness to bear risks, the readiness to back…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-august-von-hayek/it-is-true-that-the-virtues-which-are-less-esteemed-and-practiced-now/) [Friedrich August von Hayek](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-august-von-hayek/) > [Not merely by rules of conduct and religious observances, nor by much learning either, nor even by attainment of concentration, nor by sleeping alone,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/not-merely-by-rules-of-conduct-and-religious-observances-nor-by-much/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I started off like everyone else does, slogging but having a compulsion to put words on paper. I didn't write or read horror or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laurell-k-hamilton/i-started-off-like-everyone-else-does-slogging-but-having-a/) [Laurell K. Hamilton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laurell-k-hamilton/) > [I have with me two gods, Persuasion and Compulsion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/themistocles/i-have-with-me-two-gods-persuasion-and-compulsion/) [Themistocles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/themistocles/) > [When you are dealing with a serious compulsion or addictive pattern, then by definition self-will, self-discipline, and any other machinations of the conscious mind…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marianne-williamson/when-you-are-dealing-with-a-serious-compulsion-or-addictive-pattern/) [Marianne Williamson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marianne-williamson/) [Browse all 513 Compulsion quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/compulsion/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Man's gift of seeing resemblances is nothing other than a rudiment of the powerful compulsion in former times to become and behave like something else.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Walter Benjamin" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-nothing-other-than-a-rudiment-of/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Compulsion" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-nothing-other-than-a-rudiment-of/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b05/walter-benjamin-1723_compulsion_man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-not_521202.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b05/walter-benjamin-1723_compulsion_man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-not_521202.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b05/walter-benjamin-1723_compulsion_man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-not_521202.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Man's gift of seeing resemblances is nothing other than a rudiment of the powerful compulsion in former…” — Walter Benjamin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Walter Benjamin", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Man's gift of seeing resemblances is...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-nothing-other-than-a-rudiment-of/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/man-s-gift-of-seeing-resemblances-is-nothing-other-than-a-rudiment-of/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```