Walter Benjamin Quotes
Walter Benjamin was an early 20th-century German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, and essayist, whose work has become one of the most studied bodies of writing in the history of cultural criticism. He was loosely associated with the Frankfurt School and developed an idiosyncratic philosophy combining Marxism, Jewish mysticism, and a redemptive philosophy of history. The quotes below are attributed to Walter Benjamin, organized by topic.
Walter Benjamin on Life
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Attributed to Walter Benjamin:
“The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble.”
Walter Benjamin on Mind
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Attributed to Walter Benjamin:
“Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience.”
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Attributed to Walter Benjamin:
“Memory is not an instrument for surveying the past but its theatre.”
Walter Benjamin on Politics
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Attributed to Walter Benjamin:
“There is no document of civilisation which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.”
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Attributed to Walter Benjamin:
“All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war.”
Walter Benjamin on Time
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Attributed to Walter Benjamin:
“History is the subject of a structure whose site is not homogeneous, empty time, but time filled by the presence of the now.”
Walter Benjamin on Truth
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Attributed to Walter Benjamin:
“Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought.”
Walter Benjamin on Virtue
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Attributed to Walter Benjamin:
“It is more arduous to honour the memory of the nameless than that of the renowned.”