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To A Book Collector, You See, The True Freedom Of All Books Is Somewhere On His Shelves.
-Walter Benjamin
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To A Book Collector,

Walter Benjamin
...
To A Book Collector, You See, The True Freedom Of All Books Is Somewhere On His Shelves.

Understanding the Quote: "to a book collector, you see, the true freedom of all books..."

This quote by Walter Benjamin reflects deeply on the theme of book. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Book, Shelves, True Freedom, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Walter Benjamin interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin is celebrated for insightful thoughts on book and shelves. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Book
Shelves
True Freedom
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He Who Observes Etiquette But Objects To Lying Is Like Someone Who Dresses Fashionably But Wears No Vest.
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If Sleep Is The Apogee Of Physical Relaxation, Boredom Is The Apogee Of Mental Relaxation. Boredom Is The Dream Bird That Hatches The Egg Of Experience.
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The Fairy Tale, Which To This Day Is The First Tutor Of Children Because It Was Once The First Tutor Of Mankind, Secretly Lives On In The Story. The First True Storyteller Is, And Will Continue To Be, The Teller Of Fairy Tales. Whenever Good Counsel Was At A Premium, The Fairy Tale Had It, And Where The Need Was Greatest, Its Aid Was Nearest. This Need Was Created By Myth. The Fairy Tale Tells Us Of The Earliest Arrangements That Mankind Made To Shake Off The Nightmare Which Myth Had Placed Upon Its Chest.
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In The Fields With Which We Are Concerned, Knowledge Comes Only In Flashes. The Text Is The Thunder Rolling Long Afterward.
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Language Has Unmistakably Made Plain That Memory Is Not An Instrument For Exploring The Past But Its Theater. It Is The Medium Of Past Experience, Just As The Earth Is The Medium In Which Dead Cities Lie Buried.
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The Idea That Happiness Could Have A Share In Beauty Would Be Too Much Of A Good Thing.
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Every Passion Borders On The Chaotic, But The Collector's Passion Borders On The Chaos Of Memories.
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All Great Works Of Literature Either Dissolve A Genre Or Invent One.
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[photography] Has Become More And More Subtle, More And More Modern, And The Result Is That It Is Now Incapable Of Photographing A Tenement Or A Rubbish Heap Without Transfiguring It. Not To Mention A River Dam Or Electric Cable Factory: In Front Of These, Photography Can Now Only Say, How Beautiful!
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We Do Not Always Proclaim Loudly The Most Important Thing We Have To Say. Nor Do We Always Privately Share It With Those Closest To Us, Our Intimate Friends, Those Who Have Been Most Devotedly Ready To Receive Our Confession.
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The Destructive Character Knows Only One Watchword: Make Room. And Only One Activity: Clearing Away. The Destructive Character Is Young And Cheerful. For Destroying Rejuvenates, Because It Clears Away The Traces Of Our Own Age; It Cheers, Because Everything Cleared Away Means To The Destroyer A Complete Reduction, Indeed A Rooting Out, Of His Own Condition.
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Death Is The Sanction Of Everything That The Storyteller Can Tell. He Has Borrowed His Authority From Death.
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To A Book Collector, You See, The True Freedom Of All Books Is Somewhere On His Shelves.
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... [l]ess Than At Any Time Does A Simple Reproduction Of Reality Tell Us Anything About Reality. A Photograph Of The Krupp Works Or Gec Yields Almost Nothing About Those Institutions. Reality Proper Has Slipped Into The Functional. The Reification Of Human Relationships, The Factory, Let's Say, No Longer Reveals These Relationships. Therefore Something Has To Be Constructed, Something Artificial, Something Set Up.
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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.
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For Only That Which We Knew And Practiced At Age 15 Will One Day Constitute Our Attraction. And One Thing, Therefore, Can Never Be Made Good: Having Neglected To Run Away From Home.
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It Is The Task Of The Translator To Release In His Own Language That Pure Language That Is Under The Spell Of Another, To Liberate The Language Imprisoned In A Work In His Re-creation Of That Work.
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All The Decisive Blows Are Struck Left-handed.
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Party
Springtime
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Translations
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Barbarism
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Conquer
Destruction
I Would Like To Metamorphose Into A Mouse-mountain.
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Mean
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Media
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Giving
Worry
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Fate
Men
Hands
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Generations
Natural
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Leap
Strollers
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Thinking
Perception
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Men
Names
Giving
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Attitude
Mean
Giving
Uncleanness Is So Much The Attribute Of Officials That One Could Almost Regard Them As Enormous Parasites...in The Same Way The Fathers In Kafka's Strange Families Batten On Their Sons, Lying On Top Of Them Like Giant Parasites. They Not Only Prey Upon Their Strength, But Gnaw Away At The Sons' Right To Exist. The Fathers Punish, But They Are At The Same Time The Accusers. The Sin Of Which They Accuse Their Sons Seems To Be A Kind Of Original Sin.
Lying
Father
Integrity
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.
Art
Unique
Space
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.
Book
Writing
People
Of All The Ways Of Acquiring Books, Writing Them Oneself Is Regarded As The Most Praiseworthy Method.
Book
Reading
Writing
Only He Who Can View His Own Past As An Abortion Sprung From Compulsion And Need Can Use It To Full Advantage In The Present. For What One Has Lived Is At Best Comparable To A Beautiful Statue Which Has Had All Its Limbs Knocked Off In Transit, And Now Yields Nothing But The Precious Block Out Of Which The Image Of One's Future Must Be Hewn.
Beautiful
Block
Past
No Poem Is Intended For The Reader, No Picture For The Beholder, No Symphony For The Listener.
Symphony
Beholder
Reader
For Me, It Was Like This: Pronounced Antipathy To Conversing About Matters Of Practical Life, The Future, Dates, Politics. You Are Fixated On The Intellectual Sphere As A Man Possessed May Be Fixated On The Sexual: Under Its Spell, Sucked Into It.
Men
Intellectual
May
We Collect Books In The Belief That We Are Preserving Them When In Fact It Is The Books That Preserve Their Collector.
Book
Facts
Belief
Counsel Woven Into The Fabric Of Real Life Is Wisdom.
Life
Real
Advice
All Human Knowledge Takes The Form Of Interpretation.
Intelligence
Form
Interpretation
To The Lover The Loved One Always Appears As Solitary.
Love
Dream
Solitary
These Are Days When No One Should Rely Unduly On His Competence. Strength Lies In Improvisation. All The Decisive Blows Are Struck Left-handed.
Life
Lying
Blow
The Messiah Comes Not Only As The Redeemer, He Comes As The Subduer Of Antichrist. Only That Historian Will Have The Gift Of Fanning The Spark Of Hope In The Past Who Is Firmly Convinced That Even The Dead Will Not Be Safe From The Enemy If He Wins. And This Enemy Has Not Ceased To Be Victorious.
Winning
Past
Enemy
Bourgeois Existence Is The Regime Of Private Affairs . . . And The Family Is The Rotten, Dismal Edifice In Whose Closets And Crannies The Most Ignominious Instincts Are Deposited. Mundane Life Proclaims The Total Subjugation Of Eroticism To Privacy.
Rotten
Mundane Life
Privacy
Thinking Involves Not Only The Flow Of Thoughts, But Their Arrest As Well.
Thinking
Flow
Wells
What We Must Demand From The Photographer Is The Ability To Put Such A Caption Beneath His Picture As Will Rescue It From The Ravages Of Modishness And Confer Upon It A Revolutionary Use Value.
Use
Demand
Photographer
Gifts Must Affect The Receiver To The Point Of Shock.
Giving
Shock
Receiver
All Efforts To Render Politics Aesthetic Culminate In One Thing: War.
War
Effort
Aesthetic
Opinions Are To The Vast Apparatus Of Social Existence What Oil Is To Machines: One Does Not Go Up To A Turbine And Pour Machine Oil Over It; One Applies A Little To Hidden Spindles And Joints That One Has To Know.
Oil
Doe
Machines
Having A Clear Faith, Based On The Creed Of The Church Is Often Labeled Today As Fundamentalism. Whereas Relativism, Which Is Letting Oneself Be Tossed And Of All The Ways Of Acquiring Books, Writing Them Oneself Is Regarded As The Most Praiseworthy Method. 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.
Book
Writing
People
Genuine Polemics Approach A Book As Lovingly As A Cannibal Spices A Baby.
Girl
Baby
Book
Trending Author
Frank Ocean
Mina Loy
Randy Moss
Thierry Henry
Jorge Garcia
Suzanne Brockmann
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