The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.
Walter BenjaminRead
Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creation and life persist despite chaos and destruction.
Walter Benjamin's quote expresses the idea that the essence of life, described here as 'living substance', has the power to overcome the turmoil and destruction in the world through the joy and act of creation, or procreation. This quote highlights the fundamental resilience of life against adversity, suggesting that even in the face of chaos, the act of bringing forth new life is both a source of happiness and a victory over destruction.
Themes
CreationLifeDestructionResilienceProcreationJoy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could inspire artists at a gallery opening to reflect on the importance of creativity.
More from Walter Benjamin
All quotes →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
Walter BenjaminRead
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.
Walter BenjaminRead
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.
Walter BenjaminRead
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.
Walter BenjaminRead
How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!
Walter BenjaminRead
Similar quotes
Sometimes I wonder if he wasn't born dead. I never met a man who was less interested in the living. Sometimes I think that's the trouble with the world: too many people in high places who are stone-cold dead.
Kurt VonnegutRead
He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all
Richard BachRead
We all have at least two sides. The world we live in is a world of opposites. And the trick is to reconcile those opposing things. I've always liked both sides. In order to appreciate one you have to know the other. The more darkness you can gather up, the more light you can see too.
David LynchRead
The layman always means, when he says "reality" that he is speaking of something self-evidently known; whereas to me it seems the most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on the construction of a new idea of reality.
Wolfgang PauliRead
Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.
Samuel BeckettRead
The Bible is not interested in arguing, because if you state a thesis of belief you have already stated it's opposite; if you say, I believe in God, you have already suggested the possibility of not believing in him. [p.250]
Northrop FryeRead