Man is the namer; by this we recognize that through him pure language speaks. All nature, insofar as it communicates itself, communicates itself in language, and so finally in man. Hence, he is the lord of nature and can give names to things. Only through the linguistic being of things can he get beyond himself and attain knowledge of them-in the name. God's creation is completed when things receive their names from man, from whom in name language alone speaks.

We have long forgotten the ritual by which the house of our life was erected. But when it is under assault and enemy bombs are already taking their toll, what enervated, perverse antiquities do they not lay bare in the foundations.

The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble.

The art of the critic in a nutshell: to coin slogans without betraying ideas. The slogans of an inadequate criticism peddle ideas to fashion.

Ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects. Not that they come alive in him; it is he who lives in them.

Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like.

History breaks down into images, not into stories.