Horkheimer, Max

"Reason has become an instrument. There is a tragic irony in the attempt to use the tools of reason for purposes which transcend all reason."

"The more the machinery of thought asserts itself, the more does thinking become reified, a fixed operation, the more does it insist on its equivalence to the machine."

"Art is not religion. It is neither a substitute for it, nor is it able to be one."

"The culture industry not only adapts workers to the system; it educates them in order that the system might work."

"Freedom would not be freedom if it did not include the freedom to make mistakes."

"Enlightenment is the process in which man becomes aware of his own powers and learns to use them."

"What is new about the present phase of history is not the decline of the given forces of production but their repression."

"Language reflects the thinking of society and is at the same time an instrument for changing it."

"The human is something that must be overcome."

"Domination perpetuates itself by preventing individuals from being aware of their collective power."

"The culture industry destroys the autonomy and spontaneity of the subject in its basic modes of conduct and behavior."

"In a totally administered world, even thought becomes a luxury good."

"The pursuit of happiness becomes the escape from unhappiness."

"Truth requires a moment of negation."

"Critical thinking means thinking against oneself."

"Society is held together by coercion, not consent."

"The market does not reward virtue but rather the ability to deceive."

"Justice is not balance but the recognition of difference."

"The individual is rendered powerless by the machinery of modern life."

"Hope is the last refuge of those who have nothing."

"Technology has become the ideology of the age."

"Reason without passion is merely calculation."

"The greatest threat to freedom is the loss of the ability to imagine alternatives."

"War is the continuation of politics by other means."

"Art must offer resistance to the forces of administration."

"The exchange society extends its logic into every corner of human life."

"Understanding requires the courage to go against the grain."

"Nature is not a safe haven but a subject of manipulation like anything else."

"The culture industry produces conformity rather than culture."

"Humanity must learn to control its instruments before they control it."