Elias Canetti Quotes

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• Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being sitting inside were making fun of you.

  Elias Canetti

  Funny, Animal, Sitting

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• All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.

  Elias Canetti

  Inspirational, Dream, Helping

  Die Provinz der Menschen (The Human Province, 1973) p. 269

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• 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

  Dying, Earth, Ugly

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• 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

  Eye, People, Decision

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• I would like to become tolerant without overlooking anything, persecute no one even when all people persecute me; become better without noticing it; become sadder, but enjoy living; become more serene, be happy in others; belong to no one, grow in everyone; love the best, comfort the worst; not even hate myself anymore.

  Elias Canetti

  Happiness, Hate, People

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• I cannot become modest; too many things burn in me; the old solutions are falling apart; nothing has been done yet with the new ones. So I begin, everywhere at once, as if I had a century ahead of me.

  Elias Canetti

  Fall, Done, Century

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• When you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about

  Elias Canetti

  Writing, Pages, Should

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• The process of writing has something infinite about it. Even though it is interrupted each night, it is one single notation.

  Elias Canetti

  Writing, Night, Literature

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• Understanding, as we understand it, is misunderstanding.

  Elias Canetti

  Understanding, Misunderstanding

  Elias Canetti (1982). “Auto Da Fé”, New York : Continuum

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• Explain nothing. Put it there. Say it. Leave.

  Elias Canetti

  Advice

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• There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown.

  Elias Canetti

  Men

  Elias Canetti (1962). “Crowds and power: Masse und Macht]”

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• Of all the words in all languages I know, the greatest concentration is in the English word I.

  Elias Canetti

  English Words, Language, Concentration

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• The self- explorer, whether he wants to or not, becomes the explorer of everything else. He learns to see himself, but suddenly, provided he was honest, all the rest appears, and it is as rich as he was, and, as a final crowning, richer.

  Elias Canetti

  Honesty, Knowledge, Acceptance

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• It is important to say all the great thoughts again, without knowing that they have already been said.

  Elias Canetti

  Knowing, Important, Said

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• His head is made of stars, but not yet arranged into constellations.

  Elias Canetti

  Stars, Made, Constellations

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• There is no doubt: the study of man is just beginning, at the same time that his end is in sight

  Elias Canetti

  Men, Sight, Doubt

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• Speak as though it were the last sentence allowed you.

  Elias Canetti

  Lasts, Speak, Sentences

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• The first effect of adjusting to other people is that one becomes boring.

  Elias Canetti

  People, Boredom, Adjusting

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• Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster.

  Elias Canetti

  Decision, Disaster, Ifs

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• Learning is the art of ignoring.

  Elias Canetti

  Art, Learning

  Elias Canetti (1964). “Auto-da-fé”, New York : Stein and Day

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• The act of naming is the great and solemn consolation of mankind

  Elias Canetti

  Mankind, Consolation, Solemn

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• One has a prejudice wherever one fears a transformation.

  Elias Canetti

  Fear, Prejudice, Transformation

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• Travelling, one accepts everything; indignation stays at home. One looks, one listens, one is roused to enthusiasm by the most dreadful things because they are new. Good travellers are heartless.

  Elias Canetti

  Home, Heartless, Looks

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• One should not confuse the craving for life with endorsement of it.

  Elias Canetti

  Life, Should, Endorsements

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• It doesn't matter how new an idea is: what matters is how new it becomes.

  Elias Canetti

  Creativity, Technology, What Matters

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