Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. 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 Benjamin
Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.
Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.
It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.
He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest.
Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.
Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.
Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.
Death is the sanction of everything the story-teller can tell. He has borrowed his authority from death.
Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.
Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.
Books and harlots have their quarrels in public.
All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.
All disgust is originally disgust at touching.
