Theodor W. Adorno

Intelligence is a moral category.

The recent past always presents itself as if destroyed by catastrophes.

The man for whom time stretches out painfully is one waiting in vain, disappointed at not finding tomorrow already continuing yesterday.

No harm comes to man from outside alone: dumbness is the objective spirit.

For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live.

History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.

Tact is the discrimination of differences. It consists in conscious deviations.

He who stands aloof runs the risk of believing himself better than others and misusing his critique of society as an ideology for his private interest.

Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane.

Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices.

The most powerful person is he who is able to do least himself and burden others most with the things for which he lends his name and pockets the credit.

The hardest hit, as everywhere, are those who have no choice.