Elias Canetti quotes - page 2

Success is the space one occupies in the newspaper. Success is one day's insolence. (Elias Canetti)
Whether or not God is dead: it is impossible to keep silent about him who was there for so long. View quote
Elias Canetti
People love as self-recognition what they hate as an accusation. View quote
Elias Canetti
One should use praise to recognize what one is not. View quote
Elias Canetti
The planet's survival has become so uncertain that any effort, any thought that presupposes an assured future amounts to a mad gamble. View quote
Elias Canetti
A head full of stars, just not in constellation yet. View quote
Elias Canetti
Words are not too old, only people are too old if they use the same words too frequently. View quote
Elias Canetti
I love writers who limit themselves, who write beneath their intelligence. View quote
Elias Canetti
If one has lived long enough, there is danger of succumbing to the word "God” merely because it was always there. View quote
Elias Canetti
The once-seen does not exist yet. The always seen no longer exists. View quote
Elias Canetti
Whenever the truth threatens, he hides behind a thought. (Elias Canetti)
Nothing was better for you than humiliation, for there was nothing you felt more deeply. View quote
Elias Canetti
One who, alone, would be unconquerable. But he weakens himself with allegiances. View quote
Elias Canetti
When I leaf through Fackel issues of my slave years, I am seized by horror. Anyone released from bondage must feel like this. View quote
Elias Canetti
It amazes me how a person to whom literature means anything can take it up as an object of study. View quote
Elias Canetti
When he has nothing to say, he lets words speak. View quote
Elias Canetti
Say the most personal thing, say it, nothing else matters, don't be ashamed, the generalities can be found in the newspaper. View quote
Elias Canetti
I noticed in the front row a small, very pale, almost white man, old, tremendously alert, old in the only way I love old age, namely more alive for all the years, more attentive, more unrelenting, expectant and ready, as though he still had to make up his mind about most things and must not disregard anything. View quote
Elias Canetti
I repulse death with all my strength. If I accepted it, I would be a murderer. View quote
Elias Canetti
There is something impure in the laments about the dangers of our time, as if they could serve to excuse our personal failure. View quote
Elias Canetti
The unconscious, which those who always speak of it least possess. (Elias Canetti)
I hate judgments that only crush and don't transform. View quote
Elias Canetti
One should tell oneself how fruitful misunderstandings are. One shouldn't despise them. One of the wisest people was a collector of misunderstandings. View quote
Elias Canetti
His great holy books, which he does not know. They are so holy that he does not dare to open them. View quote
Elias Canetti
"He is a lesser figure than X”-how it pleases an Englishman to say that! Never suspecting what basement that would put him in, a wood louse. View quote
Elias Canetti