Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter BenjaminRead
Not to find one's way in a city may well be uninteresting and banal. It requires ignorance - nothing more. But to lose oneself in a city - as one loses oneself in a forest - that calls for a quite different schooling. Then, signboard and street names, passers-by, roofs, kiosks, or bars must speak to the wanderer like a cracking twig under his feet in the forest.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Losing oneself in a city's chaos can be more enriching than merely navigating through it.
Walter Benjamin emphasizes that the experience of getting lost in a city, much like in a forest, requires a deeper understanding and connection to one's surroundings. It suggests that true exploration and discovery come from immersion and attentiveness, rather than just a surface-level comprehension of directions and landmarks.
Themes
ExplorationCityImmersionWanderingDiscovery
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about traveling, one could use this quote to highlight the beauty of exploring unknown places.
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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