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In these phonetic poems we the Dadaist artists totally renounce the language that journalism has abused and corrupted. We must return to the innermost alchemy of the word, we must even give up the word too, to keep for poetry its last and holiest refuge.

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More quotes by Hugo Ball

The war [World War 1.] is founded on a glaring mistake, men have been confused with machines.

That is the meaning of the coming of Christ.. ..that the word becomes flesh and man is saved from abstraction.

Our cabaret 'Cabaret Voltaire' is a gesture.. .Every word that is spoken and sung here says at least this one thing: that this humiliating age has not succeeded in winning our respect.

It is a mistake to believe in my presence.. .If I take a seat at a party, I can see, even from afar, that only a ghost is sitting there.

I have examined myself carefully. I could never bid chaos welcome, blow up bridges, and do away with ideas. I am not an anarchist.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Hugo Ball (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.