True translation is transparent: it does not obscure the original, does not stand in its light, but rather allows pure language, as if strengthened by its own medium, to shine even more fully on the original.

What we must demand from the photographer is the ability to put such a caption beneath his picture as will rescue it from the ravages of modishness and confer upon it a revolutionary use value.

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

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

I came into the world under the sign of Saturn -- the star of the slowest revolution, the planet of detours and delays.

Literature tells very little to those who understand it.

Our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of the past.