Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter BenjaminRead
How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!
Interpretation
The quote reflects how the quest for knowledge through reading can lead to new insights and experiences.
In this quote, Walter Benjamin expresses the profound connection between the pursuit of knowledge and the exploration of the world. He suggests that through reading and engaging with books, one can uncover new perspectives, ideas, and even a sense of place, as if cities themselves reveal their secrets to those who delve into literature and learning.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of reading, this quote illustrates how much cities can teach us through books.
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.
If, then, you wish to insure the interest of your pupils, there is only one way to do it; and that is to make certain that they have something in their minds to attend with, when you begin to talk. That something can consist in nothing but a previous lot of ideas already interesting in themselves, and of such a nature that the incoming novel objects which you present can dovetail into them and form with them some kind of a logically associated or systematic whole.
I am still amazed at the amount of Christian charity [Wellesley] stuck us all with, a kind of glazed politeness in the face of boredom and stupidity. Tolerance, in the worst sense of the word. How marvelous it would have been to go to a women's college that encouraged impoliteness, that rewarded aggression, that encouraged argument.
A professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a clever pupil, for the true discovers are among them, as comets amongst the stars.
Education has become a very powerful weapon in the struggle to produce a well-developed person.
When you're learning, especially to write, unless you're some incredibly gifted writer, a young Malcom Gladwell, say, you need to be imitating people. You need to be imitating how they make their work, how they structure it, how they design the pieces. It gives you chops; it gives you moves.
He had been so busy getting away from the library, he hadn't paid attention to where he was going.
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