The Mass Ornament Quotes

“We must rid ourselves of the delusion that it is the major events which have the most decisive influence on us. We are much more deeply and continuously influenced by the tiny catastrophes that make up daily life.”
― Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays

“...[G]enuine fairy tales are not stories about miracles, but rather announcements of the miraculous advent of justice.”
― Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays

“Perhaps the only remaining attitude is one of
waiting. By committing oneself to waiting, one neither blocks one's path
toward faith (like those who defiantly affirm the void) nor besieges this
faith (like those whose yearning is so strong, it makes them lose all
restraint). One waits, and one's waiting is a hesitant openness, albeit of a
sort that is difficult to explain.”
― Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays

“Nicht in dem Zirkel des natürliches Lebens bewegt sich die Vernunft. Ihr geht um die Einsetzung der Wahrheit in der Welt. Vorgeträumt ist ihr Reich in den echten Märchen, die keine Wundergeschichten sind, sondern die wunderbare Ankunft der Gerechtigkeit meinen.”
― Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays

“Perhaps the only remaining attitude is one of waiting. By committing oneself to waiting, one neither blocks one's path toward faith (like those who defiantly affirm the void) nor besieges this faith (like those whose yearning is so strong, it makes them lose all restraint). One waits, and one's waiting is a hesitant openness, albeit of a sort that is difficult to explain.”
― Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays