During long periods of history, the mode of human sense perception changes with humanity’s entire mode of existence. The manner in which human sense perception is organized, the medium in which it is accomplished, is determined not only by nature but by historical circumstances as well

If mythic violence is lawmaking, divine violence is law-​destroying; if the former sets boundaries, the latter boundlessly destroys them; if mythic violence brings at once guilt and retribution, divine power only expiates; if the former threatens, the latter strikes; if the former is bloody, the latter is lethal without spilling blood

Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.

Rather than ask, What is the attitude of a work to the relations of production of its time? I should like to ask, What is its position in them.

Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.

We do not always proclaim loudly the most important thing we have to say. Nor do we always privately share it with those closest to us, our intimate friends, those who have been most devotedly ready to receive our confession.

As long as there is still one beggar around, there will still be myth.