QuoteProject
All the decisive blows are struck left-handed.
Walter Benjamin
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that unconventional or unexpected methods can lead to significant outcomes.

Walter Benjamin's quote implies that many of the most impactful actions or ideas come from the unconventional or left-handed approach, symbolizing creativity and non-traditional thinking. It encourages us to consider perspectives and solutions that may not be mainstream but can be powerful in their effectiveness.

Themes

DecisiveCreativeLeft-HandedUnconventionalImpact

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about embracing creativity, one might reference this quote to inspire novel thinking.

More from Walter Benjamin

Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter BenjaminRead
The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.
Walter BenjaminRead
If mythic violence is lawmaking, divine violence is law-​destroying; if the former sets boundaries, the latter boundlessly destroys them; if mythic violence brings at once guilt and retribution, divine power only expiates; if the former threatens, the latter strikes; if the former is bloody, the latter is lethal without spilling blood
Walter BenjaminRead
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.
Walter BenjaminRead
Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph. Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help.
Walter BenjaminRead
I am unpacking my library. Yes I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order.
Walter BenjaminRead

Similar quotes

We know that there is an infinite, and we know not its nature. As we know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore true that there is a numerical infinity. But we know not of what kind; it is untrue that it is even, untrue that it is odd; for the addition of a unit does not change its nature; yet it is a number, and every number is odd or even (this certainly holds of every finite number). Thus we may quite well know that there is a God without knowing what He is.
Blaise PascalRead
The Buddha never intended to make desire itself the problem. When he said craving causes suffering, he was referring not to our natural inclination as living beings to have wants and needs, but to our habit of clinging to experience that must, by nature, pass away.
Tara BrachRead
The social principles of Christianity preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submission, humility, in a word all the qualities of the canaille
Karl MarxRead
I have tried drugs and a little of everything else, and there is nothing in the world more soul-satisfying than having the kingdom of God building inside you and growing.
Johnny CashRead
She started off, walking fast, as if the speed of her steps could give form to the things she felt.
Ayn RandRead
All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.
George EliotRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.