Books and harlots have their quarrels in public.

You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps - his tastes, his interest, his habits.

Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.

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

The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.

The adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited scope, as much for thinking as for perception.

Let no thought pass incognito, and keep your notebook as strictly as the authorities keep their register of aliens.