The human is indissolubly linked with imitation: a human being only becomes human at all by imitating other human beings.

In the end indignation over kitsch is anger at tis shameless revelling in the joy of imitation.

There is no true life within a false life.

It would be advisable to think of progress in the crudest, most basic terms: that no one should go hungry anymore, that there should be no more torture, no more Auschwitz. Only then will the idea of progress be free from lies.

Quality is decided by the depth at which the work incorporates the alternatives within itself, and so masters them.

A pencil and rubber are of more use to thought than a battalion of assistants. To happiness the same applies as to truth: one does not have it, but is in it.

Triviality is evil - triviality, that is, in the form of consciousness and mind that adapts itself to the world as it is, that obeys the principle of inertia. And this principle of inertia truly is what is radically evil.