Raoul Vaneigem > Quotes

“People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth”
― Raoul Vaneigem

“Who wants a world in which the guarantee that we shall not die of starvation entails the risk of dying of boredom?”
― Raoul Vaneigem

“Down with a world in which the guarantee that we will not die of starvation has been purchased with the guarantee that we will die of boredom.”
― Raoul Vaneigem, Revolution of Everyday Life

“The millions of human beings who were shot, tortured, starved, treated like animals and made the object of a conspiracy of ridicule, can sleep in peace in their communal graves, for at least the struggle in which they died has enabled their descendants, isolated in their air-conditioned apartments, to believe, on the strength of their daily dose of television, that they are happy and free. The Communards went down, fighting to the last, so that you too could qualify for a Caribbean cruise.”
― Raoul Vaneigem, Revolution of Everyday Life

“The same people who are murdered slowly in the mechanized slaughterhouses of work are also arguing, singing, drinking, dancing, making love, holding the streets, picking up weapons and inventing a new poetry.”
― Raoul Vaneigem

“The nihilist makes one mistake: he does not realise that other people are also nihilists, and that the nihilism of other people is now an active historical factor. He has no consciousness of the possibility of transcendence. The fact is, however, that the present reign of survival, in which all the talk about progress expresses nothing so much as the fear that progress may be impossible, is itself a product of history, is itself the outcome of all the renunciations of humanity that have been made over the centuries. Indeed, the history of survival is the historical movement which will eventually undo history itself. For clear awareness of just how nightmarish life has become is on the point of fusing with a consciousness of the successive renunciations of the past, and thus too with the real desire to pick up the movement of transcendence everywhere in space and time where it has been prematurely interrupted.”
― Raoul Vaneigem

“To be rich nowadays merely means to possess a large number of poor objects.”
― Raoul Vaneigem

“Qu’est-ce que le nihilisme ? Rozanov répond parfaitement à la question quand il écrit : “La représentation est terminée. Le public se lève. Il est temps d’enfiler son manteau et de rentrer à la maison. On se retourne : plus de manteau ni de maison.”
― Raoul Vaneigem, Traité De Savoir Vivre à L'usage Des Jeunes Générations

“To talk of a modern work of art enduring is sillier than talking of the eternal values of Standard Oil.”
― Raoul Vaneigem

“It is much more a lack of fun which batters us than over abundance and indulgence”
― Raoul Vaneigem

“Kendimi ararken hangi sapa yollarda yolumu yitiririm? Beni koruma numarasıyla, beni kendimden ayıran perde ne? Beni oluşturan bu ufalanmış parçaların içinde kendimi nasıl yeniden keşfedebilirim? Kendimi kavrama konusunda asla bilmediğim bir belirsizliğe doğru ilerliyorum. Sanki önümdeki yol önceden belirlenmiş. Sanki iç dünyam, kendi yarattığını sandığı; ama gerçekte onu biçimlendiren zihinsel bir manzaranın çizgilerinin bir parçası. Saçma -dünyanın rasyonelliğini onayladığı ve tartışmasız kabul edildiği için saçmalar saçması- bir güç beni durmaksızın sıçramaya zorluyor; ama asla terk edemediğim sert bir zeminde ayaklarım. Ve kendime doğru yaptığım bu yararsız atlayışımla, sadece bugünle olan bağımı yitirme başarısını gösteriyorum: çoğu kez, kendimden uzakta, ölü zamanın ritmiyle yaşarım.”
― Raoul Vaneigem