A successful work of art is not one which resolves objective contradictions in a spurious harmony, but one which expresses the idea of harmony negatively by embodying the contradictions, pure and uncompromised, in its innermost structure.

The culture industry not so much adapts to the reactions of its customers as it counterfeits them.

Insane sects grow with the same rhythm as big organizations. It is the rhythm of total destruction.

One must have tradition in oneself, to hate it properly.

Wrong life cannot be lived rightly.

In the innermost recesses of humanism, as its very soul, there rages a frantic prisoner who, as a Fascist, turns the world into a prison.

The gods look in pleasure on penitent sinners.