348 quotes
Renaissance Italy became a kind of Hollywood collection of sets of antiquity, and the new visual antiquarianism of the Renaissance provided an avenue to power for men of any class. (p. 136)
The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
The invention of typography confirmed and extended the new visual stress of applied knowledge, providing the first uniformly repeatable “commodity,” the first assembly-line, and the first mass-production. (p. 142)
The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
The subliminal depths of radio are charged with the resonating echoes of tribal horns and antique drums. This is inherent in the very nature of this medium, with its power to turn the psyche and society into a single echo chamber.
Understanding Media (1964)
Nobody can doubt that the entire range of applied science contributes to the very format of a newspaper. But the headline is a feature which began with the Napoleonic Wars. The headline is a primitive shout of rage, triumph, fear, or warning, and newspapers have thrived on wars ever since.
The Mechanical Bride (1951)
Current concern with reading and spelling reform steers away from visual to auditory stress. (p. 54)
The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
A fixed point of view becomes possible with print and ends the image as a plastic organism. (p. 144)
The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
The medieval student had to be paleographer, editor, and publisher of the authors he read. (p. 109)
The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
The role of the artist is to create an Anti-environment as a means of perception and adjustment. (p. 31)
The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011)
Great ages of innovation are the ages in which entire cultures are junked or scrapped. (p. 309)
The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011)
The celebrated earthy tactility of Rabelais is a massive backwash of receding manuscript culture. (p. 170)
The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
All media exists to invest our lives with artificial perception and arbitrary values. (p. 199)
Understanding Media (1964)
A moral point of view too often serves as a substitute for understanding in technological matters. (p. 245)
Understanding Media (1964)
African audiences cannot accept our passive consumer role in the presence of film. (p. 44)
The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
It is the poets and painters who react instantly to a new medium like radio or TV. (p. 53)
Understanding Media (1964)
The sociologist permits himself to see only what is acceptable to his colleagues. (p. 370)
The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011)
Faced with information overload, we have no alternative but pattern-recognition. (p. 132)
Counterblast (1969)
Typography tended to alter language from a means of perception and exploration to a portable commodity. (p. 183)
The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
Typography extended its character to the regulation and fixation of languages. (p. 229)
The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
The only cool PR is provided by one's enemies. They toil incessantly and for free. (88)
Culture Is Our Business (1970)
The mask, like the side-show freak, is mainly participatory rather than pictorial in its sensory appeal. (p. 352)
The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011)