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Elements of empirical language are manipulated in their rigidity, as if they were elements of a true and revealed language. The empirical usability of the sacred ceremonial words makes both the speaker and listener believe in their corporeal presence.

— Theodor Adorno Jargon der Eigentlichkeit [Jargon of Authenticity (1964)

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More quotes by Theodor Adorno

Fear and destructiveness are the major emotional sources of fascism, eros belongs mainly to democracy.

The Authoritarian Personality (1950)

Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.

Minima Moralia (1951)

Advancing bourgeois society liquidates memory, time, recollection as irrational leftovers of the past.

Was bedeutet Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit (1959)

Jazz is the false liquidation of art — instead of utopia becoming reality it disappears from the picture.

The departmentalization of mind is a means of abolishing mind where it is not exercised ex officio, under contract.

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