Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter BenjaminRead
What has been forgotten is never something purely individual. Everything forgotten mingles with what has been forgotten of the prehistoric world, forms countless, uncertain, changing compounds, yielding a constant flow of new, strange products.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that what we forget is interconnected with larger human history and experiences, creating a continuous transformation of ideas and memories.
Walter Benjamin's quote reflects on the nature of memory and forgetting, proposing that our individual memories are not isolated. Instead, they intertwine with collective historical experiences, leading to an ever-evolving synthesis of thoughts and ideas that result in new insights and concepts. This interplay emphasizes that our understanding of the past is dynamic, and what we forget can still influence contemporary thought and creativity.
Themes
MemoryForgettingHistoryCollectiveTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of historical events on current culture, one might use this quote to emphasize the interconnectedness of memory and collective experiences.
More from Walter Benjamin
All quotes →The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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