One has among other things the feeling of being distinguished because one fancies oneself in such a way

Connection; distinction. Feeling of little wings growing in one's smile. Smiling and flapping as related.

The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than of convictions,

and of such facts as have scarcely ever become the basis of convictions.

In the world's structure dream loosens individuality like a bad tooth.

In the end, we get older, we kill everyone who loves us through the worries we give them...

through the troubled tenderness we inspire in them, and the fears we ceaselessly cause.

Articulating the past historically does not mean recognizing it ‘the way it really was.'

It means appropriating a memory as it flashes up in a moment of danger.

historical materialism wishes to hold fast that image of the past which unexpectedly appears to the historical subject in a moment of danger

The danger threatens both the content of the tradition and those who inherit it.

For both, it is one and the same thing: the danger of becoming a tool of the ruling classes.

Every age must strive anew to wrest tradition away from the conformism that is working to overpower it.

The Messiah comes not only as the redeemer; he comes as the victor over the Antichrist.

the masses seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from the spectator ~Walter Benjamin (Illuminations: Essays and Reflections)

avoid everyday mediocrity

accompaniment by an etude or a cacophony of voices can become as significant for work as the perceptible silence of the night

verily, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a scientific man to pass through a door

whether the door be barn door or church door it might be wiser that he should consent to be an ordinary man

and walk in rather than wait till all the difficulties involved in a really scientific ingress are resolved