Everything that has ever been called folk art has always reflected domination.

Kitsch parodies catharsis...It is in vain to try to draw the boundaries abstractly between aesthetic fiction and kitsch's emotional plunder. It is a poison admixed to all art; excising it is today one of art's despairing efforts.

Laughing in the cultural industry is mockery of happiness.

Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they’re only animals.

He who has laughter on his side has no need of proof.

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

The inadequacy of the purely purpose-oriented form is revealed for what it is-a monotonous, impoverished boring practicality.