32 quotes
Science and art both project the world along certain coordinates. Differences in form are due only to differences in the coordinates.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
Realism that is not primitive, not realia but realiora, consists in displacement, distortion, curvature, non-objectivity.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
Every today is at the same time both a cradle and a shroud: a shroud for yesterday, a cradle for tomorrow.
Tomorrow (1919)
Heretics are the only (bitter) remedy against the entropy of human thought.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
The sole means of ridding man of crime is to rid him of freedom.
At night numbers must sleep; it is their duty, just as it is their duty to work in the daytime. Not sleeping at night is a criminal offense.
We (1921)
The ancient God created the old man, capable of erring — thus he erred himself.
We (1921)
True literature can exist only when it is created, not by diligent and reliable officials, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and skeptics.
I Am Afraid (1921)
Realism — be it "socialist" or "bourgeois" — is unreal.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
We want to recall something else to mind: that the sabbath is for man.
The only weapon worthy of man — of tomorrows's man — is the word.
Tomorrow (1919)
Knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith.
We (1921)
A literature that is alive does not live by yesterday's clock, nor by today's but by tomorrow's.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
Today is doomed to die — because yesterday died, and because tomorrow will be born.
Tomorrow (1919)
Accentuated plainness and accentuated vice ought to bring about harmony. Beauty lies in harmony, in style, whether it be the harmony of ugliness or beauty, vice or virtue.”
It is an error to divide people into the living and the dead: there are people who are dead-alive, and people who are alive-alive.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
Instead of the Sermon on the Mount, under the scorching sun, to up-raised arms and sobbing people, there is drowsy prayer in a magnificent abbey.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite. There is no final revolution, no final number.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
Two dead, dark stars collide with an inaudible, deafening crash and light a new star: this is revolution.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
The alive-alive are constantly in error, in search, in questions, in torment.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)
Dealing with answered questions is the privilege of brains constructed like a cow's stomach, which, as we know, is built to digest cud.
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters (1923)