The positive element of kitsch lies in the fact that it sets free for a moment the glimmering realization that you have wasted your life.
Theodor AdornoOnce the last trace of emotion has been eradicated, nothing remains of thought but absolute tautology.
Theodor AdornoThe usual reproach against the essay, that it is fragmentary and random, itself assumes the givenness of totality and suggests that man is in control of this totality. The desire of the essay, though, is not to filter the eternal out of the transitory; it wants, rather, to make the transitory eternal.
Theodor Adorno