The sickness of the individual is ultimately caused by and sustained by the sickness of his civilization

Preaching nonviolence on principle reproduces the existing institutionalized violence.

However, if "free choice" means more than a small selection between pre-established necessities, and if the inclinations and impulses used in work are other than those preshaped by a repressive reality principle, then satisfaction in daily work is only a rare privilege.

The truth of art lies in its power to break the monopoly of established reality to define what is real.

This society turns everything it touches into a potential source of progress and exploitation, of drudgery and satisfaction, of freedom and of oppression.

The web of domination has become the web of Reason itself, and this society is fatally entangled in it.

If mass communications blend together harmoniously, and often unnoticeably, art, politics, religion, and philosophy with commercials, they bring these realms of culture to their common denominator -- the commodity form. The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value, counts.