Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter BenjaminRead
Like ultraviolet rays memory shows to each man in the book of life a script that invisibly and prophetically glosses the text.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Memory shapes our understanding of life, revealing insights that guide us throughout our existence.
Walter Benjamin uses the metaphor of ultraviolet rays to illustrate how memory illuminates our experiences, highlighting the hidden meanings within them. He suggests that each person's memory reveals a unique narrative or script in the broader context of life, influencing how we perceive and interact with the world around us.
Themes
MemoryLifeExperienceNarrativeMeaning
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about how our memories shape our identities.
More from Walter Benjamin
All quotes →The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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