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.
Theodor AdornoThose who cannot help ought also not advise: in an order where every mousehole has been plugged, mere advice exactly equals condemnation.
Theodor AdornoThe positive element of kitsch lies in the fact that it sets free for a moment the glimmering realization that you have wasted your life.
Theodor AdornoThe usual reproach against the essay, that it is fragmentary and random, itself assumes the givenness of totality and suggests that man is in control of this totality. The desire of the essay, though, is not to filter the eternal out of the transitory; it wants, rather, to make the transitory eternal.
Theodor Adorno