Walter Benjamin Quotes
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.

Quotes to Explore
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Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport.
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I was unbelievably lucky.
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There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants.
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That attitude and toughness that we want to play with, that, to me, is the most critical thing.
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I have a general sense of mission, and I intuitively know when something is influencing that mission. I think this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Doors keep opening. In the end, it's the best use of my skills. I've finally consented to the idea that I'm an artist.
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I do not remember exactly when I became interested in astronomy, but I know it was at a very young age. I did organize an astronomy club for my friends at the age of 11. We would meet once a week to learn about the constellations.
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The trains were the beating heart of the New York graffiti scene.
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I'm just someone who marvels at God.
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I am prepared to do whatever I can do and whatever is reasonable to make sure that it is Hillary who makes it to the White House and not Trump.
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It's totally mistaken to suppose that an armed escort is going to give a journalist any protection - on the contrary, journalists who turn up surrounded by armed personnel are just turning themselves into targets and in even worse danger.
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In the late '90s, I spent a lot of time on reservations, and there was a level of poverty and injustice that I had not witnessed before. I was shocked by it. This is federally controlled land, and there was an insidious mix of apathy and exploitation.
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I think you just have to accept the fact that no one lives forever, and eventually things are going to come to an end, whether it's a TV show or life.
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I remember 'Hannah Montana' came out, and I was so depressed, I started crying because I was like, 'I want to do that.'
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In 20 years I want to look back and see a collection of crazy characters that I made - a menagerie.
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As a universal history of philosophy, the history of philosophy must become one great unity.
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You don't need to wear Spanx if you buy my clothes. The dress, the trousers, the pencil skirt - they should do the work.
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It's a job. When I'm writing I'm going to do it five to six days a week and I'm going to work for four to six hours a day. There's no magic writing fairy. It's just hard work.
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As I watched bookstores close, I began to wonder how that felt for the owners. Owning a bookstore was their dream and now they're struggling and seeing those dreams fall apart.
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In social matters, pointless conventions are not merely the bee sting of etiquette, but the snake bite of moral order.
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All I tell artists is, 'Do what you love. Never let anybody talk you into changing what your musical idea is just to try to get a hit, because you're chasing your tail that way. It's not going to happen, and if you're successful, you have to do it the rest of your life. Stay true to it and do it for the sake of the art.'
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What happened to Haiti is a threat that could happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations, you know, because of global warming, because of climate change and all this.
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It's deeply humbling to realize that there is no such thing as a society with a purchase on truth.
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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.