A ‘modern’ man has nothing to add to modernism, if only because he has nothing to oppose it with. The well-adapted drop off the dead limb of time like lice. – Elias Canetti
Whether or not God is dead: it is impossible to keep silent about him who was there for so long. – Elias Canetti
The process of writing has something infinite about it. Even though it is interrupted each night, it is one single notation. – Elias Canetti
When you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about. – Elias Canetti
There is no doubt: the study of man is just beginning, at the same time that his end is in sight. – Elias Canetti
Justice requires that everyone should have enough to eat. But it also requires that everyone should contribute to the production of food. – Elias Canetti
The profoundest thoughts of the philosophers have something trickle about them. A lot disappears in order for something to suddenly appear in the palm of the hand. – Elias Canetti
The paranoiac is the exact image of the ruler. The only difference is their position in the world. One might even think the paranoiac the more impressive of the two because he is sufficient unto himself and cannot be shaken by failure. – Elias Canetti
Adults find pleasure in deceiving a child. They consider it necessary, but they also enjoy it. The children very quickly figure it out and then practice deception themselves. – Elias Canetti
As if one could know the good a person is capable of, when one doesn’t know the bad he might do. – Elias Canetti
Rulers who want to unleash war know very well that they must procure or invent a first victim. – Elias Canetti
The fear of burglars is not only the fear of being robbed, but also the fear of a sudden and unexpected clutch out of the darkness. – Elias Canetti
There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange. – Elias Canetti
Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune? – Elias Canetti
There is no such thing as an ugly language. Today I hear every language as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the earth. – Elias Canetti
