It is always the enemy who started it, even if he was not the first to speak out, he was certainly planning it; and if he was not actually planning it, he was thinking of it; and, if he was not thinking of it, he would have thought of it.
Elias CanettiThere is no such thing as an ugly language. Today I hear every language as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the earth.
Elias CanettiThere is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange.
Elias CanettiThere can be no Creator, simply because his grief at the fate of his creation would be inconceivable and unendurable.
Elias CanettiIt is only in a crowd that man can become free of this fear of being touched. That is the only situation in which the fear changes into its oppositeโฆ The reversal of fear of being touched belongs to the nature of crowds. The feeling of relief is most striking where the density of the crowd is greatest
Elias Canetti