Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter BenjaminRead
Let no thought pass incognito, and keep your notebook as strictly as the authorities keep their register of aliens.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Be vigilant about your thoughts and document them meticulously, as one would with important records.
Walter Benjamin urges us to be mindful of our thoughts, suggesting that we should not let any idea go unnoticed or unrecorded. By keeping a notebook, akin to how authorities meticulously track individuals, we can cultivate a deeper understanding of our intellectual life and creative potential.
Themes
ThoughtsNotebookMindfulnessDocumentCreativityWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, one might say, 'Remember Walter Benjamin's advice to document your thoughts in a notebook.'
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.
Walter BenjaminRead
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
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Everybody is ambitious. The question is whether he is ambitious to be or ambitious to do.
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