Tact is the discrimination of differences. It consists in conscious deviations.

The thought that murders the wish that fathered it will be overtaken by the revenge of stupidity

Lies are told only to convey to someone that one has no need either of him or his good opinion.

Art is the social antithesis of society, not directly deducible from it.

Culture is only true when implicitly critical, and the mind which forgets this revenges itself in the critics it breeds. Criticism is an indispensable element of culture.

Kitsch evokes a future utopia looking back at a past that is selectively (mis)remembered, thereby helping to stabilize the present toward which kitsch is otherwise deeply anatagonistic.

The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.