All the decisive blows are struck left-handed.

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

We collect books in the belief that we are preserving them when in fact it is the books that preserve their collector.

Books, too, begin like the week – with a day of rest in memory of their creation. The preface is their Sunday.

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.

The concept of progress must be grounded in the idea of catastrophe. That things are 'status quo' is the catastrophe

To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright.