Where constraint breaks people, and mediation makes fools of them, the seduction of power is what makes them love their oppression. Because of it, people give up their real riches for a cause that mutilates them; for an appearance that reifies them; for roles that wrest them from authentic life; for a time whose passage defines and confines them.

To be rich nowadays merely means to possess a large number of poor objects.

The history of our times calls to mind those Walt Disney characters who rush madly over the edge of a cliff without seeing it, so that the power of their imagination keeps them suspended in mid-air; but as soon as they look down and see where they are, they fall.

People are bewitched into believing that time slips away, and this belief is the basis of time actually slipping away.

To work for delight and authentic festivity is barely distinguishable from preparing for a general insurrection

The eruption of lived pleasure is such that in losing myself I find myself; forgetting that I exist, I realize myself.

What could I wish for the present but to take the greatest pleasure in being what I am?