Walter Benjamin

"There is no document that is not a document of barbarism."

"The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again."

"Articulating the past historically does not mean knowing it 'the way it really was.'"

"A Klee painting named 'Angelus Novus' shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating."

"The angel of history must have this look."

"Bourgeois society faces a crisis when no longer does the work of Benjamin Franklin."

"To articulate the past historically means to recognize the chance of the present."

"Collect the memories of your mother."

"The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living."

"We must be ready at all times for the appearance of the liberating figure."

"Every day our cause loses more friends and the day may not be distant when the whole world will be arrayed against us."

"The distinction between right and left is now irrelevant."

"Only a redeemed mankind receives the whole of history as its past."

"History is the subject of a structure whose site is not homogeneous, empty time."

"In every era the attempt must be made anew to wrest tradition away from that conformism."

"To the historical materialist, it does not matter how far removed an object is from economic base."

"It is at the moment of danger that growth is possible."

"The greatest dangers that threaten our culture come from the destructive and wasteful character of modern civilization."

"Who has won, will win."

"The flâneur is always in full possession of his individuality."

"Humanity which once, in Homer, was an object of contemplation for the Olympian gods, now is one for itself."

"Nature is not a value in itself."

"Shock, after all, should be cushioned by slack."

"One cannot look at the most important paintings without being able to read."

"I have never had any luck with a single line of work."

"The crisis of knowledge affects science as much as it affects theology."

"Power and violence are always considered identical."

"Ambition is a lust that is never satisfied."

"Books are a real treasure of the mind."

"Every culture lives under a cloud of myths."