All That Is Solid Melts Into Air Quotes

“To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world -- and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity, of class and nationality, of religion and ideology: in this sense, modernity can be said to unite all mankind. But it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. To be modern is to be part of a universe in which, as Marx said, "all that is solid melts into air.”
― Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity

“The sort of individualism that scorns and fears connections with other people as threats to the self's integrity, and the sort of collectivism that seeks to submerge the self in a social role, may be more appealing than the Marxian synthesis, because they are intellectually and emotionally so much easier.”
― Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity

“There is a mode of vital experience -- experience of space and time, of the self and others, of life's possibilities and perils -- that is shared by men and women all over the world today. I will call this body of experience "modernity." To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world -- and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity, of class and nationality, of religion and ideology: in this sense, modernity can be said to unite all mankind. But it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. To be modern is to be part of a universe in which, as Marx said, "all that is solid melts into air.”
― Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity

“Get off the Expressway, and go south a mile or so, or half a mile north toward the Zoo; drive in and out through streets whose names are posted at the soul’s intersections — Fox, Kelly, Longwood, Honeywell, Southern Boulevard — and you will find blocks that feel so much like blocks you left long ago, blocks you thought had vanished forever, that you will wonder if you are seeing ghosts or if you yourself are a ghost haunting these solid streets with the phantoms of your inner city.”
― Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity

“To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and, at the same time that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.”
― Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity

“There is a mode of vital experience—experience of space and time, of the self and others, of life's possibilities and perils—that is shared by men and women all over the world today. I will call this body of experience ‘modernity.” To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world—and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity, of class and nationality, of religion and ideology: in this sense, modernity can be said to unite all mankind. But it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. To be modern is to be part of a universe in which, as Marx said, ‘all that is solid melts into air.”
― Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity

“در روزگار ما همه‌چیز به‌ظاهر آبستن ضد خویش است.”
― Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity

“همگان پیوسته گفتار و کردار خویش را نقض می‌کنند و همه‌چیز گنگ و مهمل است، اما هیچ‌چیز تکان‌دهنده نیست، زیرا همگان به همه‌چیز عادت کرده‌اند. این جهانی است که در آن خوب، بد، زیبا، زشت، حقیقت و فضیلت صرفاً موجودیتی محلی و محدود دارند. شمار کثیری از تجارب نو به آدمی عرضه می‌شود؛ ولی هر آن کس که بخواهد از آن‌ها بهره برد باید در زود راضی شدن دست آلکیبیادس را هم از پشت بسته باشد، باید بتواند به‌راحتی اصول عقاید خویش را همپای مخاطبانش عوض کند، و در هر گام روحیۀ خویش را با شرایط موجود وفق دهد. پس از اقامتی چند ماهه در این محیط، تازه دارم آن حالت مستی و گیجی را حس می‌کنم که این زندگی پرتنش و متلاطم آدمی را در آن غرق می‌کند. با این شمار کثیر اشیاء و موضوعاتی که از برابر چشمانم می‌گذرد، رفته‌رفته گیج و منگ می‌شوم. از میان این‌همه چیزهایی که برایم جذاب است، حتی یکی نیست که دلم را اسیر خود سازد، و با این حال مجموعۀ آن‌ها به روی هم احساساتم را چنان تحریک می‌کند که از یاد می‌برم چه هستم و به که تعلق دارم.”
― Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity

“Ser modernos es vivir una vida de paradojas y contradicciones.”
― Marshall Berman, Todo lo sólido se desvanece en el aire. La experiencia de la modernidad

“The Bronx Mural would end at the end of the Expressway itself, where it interchanges on the way to Westchester and Long Island. The end, the boundary between the Bronx and the world, would be marked with a gigantic ceremonial arch, in the tradition of the colossal monuments that Claes Oldenburg conceived in the 1960s. This arch would be circular and inflatable, suggesting both an automobile tire and a bagel. When fully pumped up, it would look indigestibly hard as a bagel, but ideal as a tire for a fast getaway; when soft, it would appear leaky and dangerous as a tire, but as a bagel, inviting to settle down and eat.”
― Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity