Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter BenjaminRead
In other words, the unique value of the "authentic" work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value. This ritualistic basis, however remote, is still recognizable as secularized ritual even in the most profane forms of the cult of beauty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The true value of authentic art lies in its original purpose and ritualistic context, even if that context has evolved.
Walter Benjamin highlights the importance of understanding the original cultural and ritualistic significance of art to appreciate its authenticity. He argues that even as art transforms into forms of aesthetic beauty, its foundational value is rooted in its historical rituals and uses, which can still be identified in contemporary interpretations.
Themes
ArtAuthenticityRitualBeautyCulture
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an art gallery to encourage patrons to reflect on the history of the artworks.
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
Similar quotes
Living here on Earth, we breathe the rhythms of a universe that extends infinitely above us. When resonant harmonies arise between this vast outer cosmos and the inner human cosmos, poetry is born.
Daisaku IkedaRead
When I’m photographing I see life.
Garry WinograndRead
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
J. R. R. TolkienRead
My business is to be talented, that is, to be capable of selecting the important moments from the trivial ones. . . . It's about time for writers - particularly those who are genuine artists - to recognize that in this world you cannot figure out everything. Just have a writer who the crowds trust be courageous enough and declare that he does not understand everything, and that alone will represent a major contribution to the way people think, a long leap forward.
Anton ChekhovRead
At all ages, if [fantasy and myth] is used well by the author and meets the right reader, it has the same power: to generalize while remaining concrete, to present in palpable form not concepts or even experiences but whole classes of experience, and to throw off irrelevancies. Bat at its best it can do more; it can give us experiences we have never had and thus, instead of 'commenting on life,' can add to it.
C. S. LewisRead
Writing is a consequence of having been 'haunted' by material. Why this is, no one knows.
Joyce Carol OatesRead