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Home
Authors
Theodor Adorno
German
Philosopher
About the author
Dialectic thought is an attempt to break through the coercion of logic by its own means.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Logic
#Thought
No emancipation without that of society.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Society
Proletarian language is dictated by hunger. The poor chew words to fill their bellies.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Words
#Poor
#Language
#Hunger
Only a humanity to whom death has become as indifferent as its members, that has itself died, can inflict it administratively on innumerable people.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#People
#Death
#Humanity
Once the last trace of emotion has been eradicated, nothing remains of thought but absolute tautology.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Nothing
#Thought
#Emotion
Not only is the self entwined in society; it owes society its existence in the most literal sense.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Society
#Sense
#Self
#Existence
Normality is death.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Death
#Normality
The task of art today is to bring chaos into order.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Art
#Today
#Order
#Chaos
No harm comes to man from outside alone: dumbness is the objective spirit.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Man
#Spirit
#Harm
Technology is making gestures precise and brutal, and with them men.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Technology
#Men
Modernity is a qualitative, not a chronological, category.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Modernity
Love you will find only where you may show yourself weak without provoking strength.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Love
#Will
#Strength
#May
Love is the power to see similarity in the dissimilar.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Love
#Power
Life has become the ideology of its own absence.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Life
#Ideology
#Absence
Lies are told only to convey to someone that one has no need either of him or his good opinion.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Opinion
#Lies
Intelligence is a moral category.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Intelligence
None of the abstract concepts comes closer to fulfilled utopia than that of eternal peace.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Peace
#Utopia
The hardest hit, as everywhere, are those who have no choice.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Choice
The splinter in your eye is the best magnifying-glass.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Eye
The recent past always presents itself as if destroyed by catastrophes.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Past
#Catastrophes
Estrangement shows itself precisely in the elimination of distance between people.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#People
The most powerful person is he who is able to do least himself and burden others most with the things for which he lends his name and pockets the credit.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Burden
#Name
#Credit
The man for whom time stretches out painfully is one waiting in vain, disappointed at not finding tomorrow already continuing yesterday.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Time
#Man
#Tomorrow
#Yesterday
#Waiting
The joke of our time is the suicide of intention.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Time
#Intention
#Suicide
Quality is decided by the depth at which the work incorporates the alternatives within itself, and so masters them.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Work
#Quality
The human is indissolubly linked with imitation: a human being only becomes human at all by imitating other human beings.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Being
Tact is the discrimination of differences. It consists in conscious deviations.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Discrimination
#Tact
The good man is he who rules himself as he does his own property: his autonomous being is modelled on material power.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Being
#Man
#Power
#Rules
The gods look in pleasure on penitent sinners.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Pleasure
#Gods
The first and only principle of sexual ethics: the accuser is always in the wrong.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#First
#Wrong
The culture industry not so much adapts to the reactions of its customers as it counterfeits them.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Culture
The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Power
In the age of the individual's liquidation, the question of individuality must be raised anew.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Question
#Age
#Individuality
The individual mirrors in his individuation the preordained social laws of exploitation, however mediated.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Laws
#Exploitation
Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Art
#Being
#Magic
#Truth
#Lie
Insane sects grow with the same rhythm as big organizations. It is the rhythm of total destruction.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Destruction
Exuberant health is always, as such, sickness also.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Health
#Sickness
Everything that has ever been called folk art has always reflected domination.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Art
#Folk
Every work of art is an uncommitted crime.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Work
#Art
#Crime
Domination delegates the physical violence on which it rests to the dominated.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Violence
But he who dies in despair has lived his whole life in vain.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Life
#Despair
For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Man
#Writing
Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Right
#Art
Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Freedom
#Choices
Anti-Semitism is the rumour about the Jews.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
An emancipated society, on the other hand, would not be a unitary state, but the realization of universality in the reconciliation of differences.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#State
#Society
All satire is blind to the forces liberated by decay. Which is why total decay has absorbed the forces of satire.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Blind
#Satire
Advice to intellectuals: let no-one represent you.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Advice
A pencil and rubber are of more use to thought than a battalion of assistants. To happiness the same applies as to truth: one does not have it, but is in it.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Thought
#Happiness
A German is someone who cannot tell a lie without believing it himself.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Lie
Because thought has by now been perverted into the solving of assigned problems, even what is not assigned is processed like a problem.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Now
#Problems
#Thought
History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#History
#Language
The specific is not exclusive: it lacks the aspiration to totality.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
In the abstract conception of universal wrong, all concrete responsibility vanishes.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Responsibility
#Wrong
In psycho-analysis nothing is true except the exaggerations.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Nothing
In many people it is already an impertinence to say 'I'.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#People
In his state of complete powerlessness the individual perceives the time he has left to live as a brief reprieve.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Time
#State
If time is money, it seems moral to save time, above all one's own, and such parsimony is excused by consideration for others. One is straight-forward.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Time
#Money
#Consideration
Fascism is itself less 'ideological', in so far as it openly proclaims the principle of domination that is elsewhere concealed.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Fascism
Horror is beyond the reach of psychology.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Horror
#Psychology
In the end, glorification of splendid underdogs is nothing other than glorification of the splendid system that makes them so.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Nothing
#End
He who stands aloof runs the risk of believing himself better than others and misusing his critique of society as an ideology for his private interest.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Ideology
#Society
#Risk
#Interest
He who matures early lives in anticipation.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Anticipation
He who integrates is lost.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
He who has loved and who betrays love does harm not only to the image of the past, but to the past itself.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Love
#Past
#Harm
He who has laughter on his side has no need of proof.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Proof
#Laughter
Happiness is obsolete: uneconomic.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Happiness
If across the Atlantic the ideology was pride, here it is delivering the goods.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Ideology
#Pride
Wrong life cannot be lived rightly.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Life
#Wrong
There is no love that is not an echo.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Love
#Echo
The whole is the false.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
Thinking no longer means anymore than checking at each moment whether one can indeed think.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Thinking
To say 'we' and mean 'I' is one of the most recondite insults.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Insults
Today self-consciousness no longer means anything but reflection on the ego as embarrassment, as realization of impotence: knowing that one is nothing.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Nothing
#Today
#Self
#Ego
#Reflection
#Embarrassment
True thoughts are those alone which do not understand themselves.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Thoughts
Truth is inseperable from the illusory belief that from the figures of the unreal one day, in spite of all, real deliverance will come.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Will
#Day
#Belief
#Truth
When all actions are mathematically calculated, they also take on a stupid quality.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Actions
#Quality
Work while you work, play while you play - this is a basic rule of repressive self-discipline.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Work
#Play
#Self
The poor are prevented from thinking by the discipline of others, the rich by their own.
Theodor Adorno,
German
Philosopher
#Thinking
#Poor
#Discipline