There was the pedestrian who wedged himself into the crowd, but there was also the flneur who demanded elbow room and was unwilling to forego the life of the gentleman of leisure. His leisurely appearance as a personality is his protest against the division of labour which makes people into specialists. it was also his protest against their industriousness. Around 1840 it was briefly fashionable to take turtles for a walk in the arcades. the flneurs liked to have the turtles set the pace for them.

Every image of the past that is not recognised by the present as one of its own threatens to disappear irretrievably.

No poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no symphony for the listener.

These are days when no one should rely unduly on his competence. Strength lies in improvisation. All the decisive blows are struck left-handed.

The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.

In the end, we get older, we kill everyone who loves us through the worries we give them, through the troubled tenderness we inspire in them, and the fears we ceaselessly cause.

Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the present.