Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
Theodor W. Adornowas a German philosopher, sociologist, and composer known for his critical theory of society...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth11 September 1903
CountryGermany
life empty timeless
Life has changed into a timeless succession of shocks, interspaced with empty, paralysed intervals.
culture demand trouble
In the products of the culture industry human beings get into trouble only so that they can be rescued unharmed, usually by representatives of a benevolent collective; and then, in illusory harmony, they are reconciled with the general interest whose demands they had initially experienced as irreconcilable with their own.
violence doe enough
Only thought which does violence to itself is hard enough to shatter myth.
running believe risk
He who stands aloof runs the risk of believing himself better than others and misusing his critique of society as an ideology for his private interest. While he gropingly forms his own life in the frail image of a true existence, he should never forget its frailty, nor how little the image is a substitute for true life. Against such awareness, however, pulls the momentum of the bourgeois within him.
eye glasses splinters
The splinter in your eye is the best magnifying-glass available.
past catastrophe ifs
The recent past always presents itself as if destroyed by catastrophes.
people hatred might
The bourgeois ... is tolerant. His love for people as they are stems from his hatred of what they might be.
successful people done
As naturally as the ruled always took the morality imposed upon them more seriously than did the rulers themselves, the deceived masses are today captivated by the myth of success even more than the successful are. Immovably, they insist on the very ideology which enslaves them. The misplaced love of the common people for the wrong which is done to them is a greater force than the cunning of the authorities.
writing men places-to-live
For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live.
mean reflection self
Today self-consciousness no longer means anything but reflection on the ego as embarrassment, as realization of impotence: knowing that one is nothing.
inspirational life art
Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.
evil mind world
Triviality is evil - triviality, that is, in the form of consciousness and mind that adapts itself to the world as it is, that obeys the principle of inertia. And this principle of inertia truly is what is radically evil.
organization insane destruction
Insane sects grow with the same rhythm as big organizations. It is the rhythm of total destruction.
empathy imitating-others imitation
The human is indissolubly linked with imitation: a human being only becomes human at all by imitating other human beings.