Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter BenjaminRead
Allegories are, in the realm of thought, what ruins are in the realm of things.
Interpretation
Allegories reflect truths similarly to how ruins embody the remnants of the past.
Walter Benjamin's quote suggests that allegories serve as a representation of deeper ideas and concepts in the mind, akin to ruins that provide insight into former structures and civilizations. Just as ruins are vestiges of history that hint at the grandeur of what once was, allegories encapsulate complex thoughts and moral insights, inviting reflection and understanding of the human experience.
In practice
In a lecture on literary analysis, I might use this quote to illustrate the importance of allegory in understanding deeper themes.
Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.
If mythic violence is lawmaking, divine violence is law-destroying; if the former sets boundaries, the latter boundlessly destroys them; if mythic violence brings at once guilt and retribution, divine power only expiates; if the former threatens, the latter strikes; if the former is bloody, the latter is lethal without spilling blood
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 do not like.
Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph. Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help.
I am unpacking my library. Yes I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order.
You must do the asana with your soul. How can you do an asana with your soul? We can only do it with the organ of the body that is closest to the soul - the heart. So a virtuous asana is done from the heart and not from the head. Then you are not just doing it, but you are in it. Many people try to think their way into an asana, but you must instead feel your way into it through love and devotion
The harp that once through Tara's halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls As if that soul were fled. So sleeps the pride of former days, So glory's thrill is o'er; And hearts that once beat high for praise Now feel that pulse no more.
Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.
I suddenly became strangely inebriated. The external world became changed as in a dream. Objects appeared to gain in relief; they assumed unusual dimensions; and colors became more glowing. Even self-perception and the sense of time were changed. When the eyes were closed, colored pictures flashed past in a quickly changing kaleidoscope. After a few hours, the not unpleasant inebriation, which had been experienced whilst I was fully conscious, disappeared. What had caused this condition?
You can find the entire cosmos lurking in its least remarkable objects.
The supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.
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