Those who cannot help ought also not advise: in an order where every mousehole has been plugged, mere advice exactly equals condemnation.

Thought as such… is an act of negation, of resistance to that which is forced upon it; this is what thought has inherited from its archetype, the relation between labor and material. Today, when ideologues tend more than ever to encourage thought to be positive, they cleverly note that positivity runs precisely counter to thought, and that it takes friendly persuasion by social authority to accustom thought to positivity.

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

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.

The lie has long since lost its honest function of misrepresenting reality. Nobody believes anybody, everyone is in the know. Lies are told only to convey to someone that one has no need either of him or his good opinion.

Estrangement shows itself precisely in the elimination of distance between people.

In psycho-analysis nothing is true except the exaggerations.