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.

Because thought has by now been perverted into the solving of assigned problems, even what is not assigned is processed like a problem.

Rampant technolgy eliminates luxury, but not by declaring privilege a human right; rather, it does so by both raising the general standard of living and cutting off the possibility of fulfilment.

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

To say 'we' and mean 'I' is one of the most recondite insults.

Jazz is the false liquidation of art - instead of utopia becoming reality it disappears from the picture.

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.