Horror is beyond the reach of psychology.

Cultural criticism finds itself faced with the final stage of the dialectic of culture and barbarism. To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. And this corrodes even the knowledge of why it has become impossible to write poetry today. Absolute reification, which presupposed intellectual progress as one of its elements, is now preparing to absorb the mind entirely. Critical intelligence cannot be equal to this challenge as long as it confines itself to self-satisfied contemplation.

The recent past always presents itself as if destroyed by catastrophes.

All satire is blind to the forces liberated by decay. Which is why total decay has absorbed the forces of satire.

The darkening of the world makes the irrationality of art rational: radically darkened art.

He who stands aloof runs the risk of believing himself better than others and misusing his critique of society as an ideology for his private interest.

Today self-consciousness no longer means anything but reflection on the ego as embarrassment, as realization of impotence: knowing that one is nothing.