Marshall McLuhan Quotes

Statement in 1965, in reference to Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1963) by Buckminster Fuller, as quoted Paradigms Lost: Learning from Environmental Mistakes, Mishaps and Misdeeds (2005) by Daniel A. Vallero, p. 367
1960s

Source: 1990s and beyond, The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011), p. 99

Source: 1960s, Counterblast (1969), p. 5

Letters of Marshall McLuhan (1987), p. 413
1980s and later
Context: I am not a "culture critic" because I am not in any way interested in classifying cultural forms. I am a metaphysician, interested in the life of the forms and their surprising modalities. That is why I have no interest in the academic world.

Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 263

Source: 1990s and beyond, The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011), p. 141

Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 16

Media as the New Nature, 1969, p. 14
1960s

Source: 1990s and beyond, A McLuhan Sourcebook (1995), p. 291

Source: 1970s, Take Today : The Executive as Dropout (1972), p. 90

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 84

Letter to Harold Adam Innis (14 March 1951), published in Essential McLuhan (1995), edited by Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone, p. 74
1950s

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 216; this paragraph was quoted as "context (0) - THE INNIS MODE" by John Brunner, the epigraph or first chapter in his novel Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Context: There is nothing willful or arbitrary about the Innis mode of expression. Were it to be translated into perspective prose, it would not only require huge space, but the insight into the modes of interplay among forms of organisation would also be lost. Innis sacrificed point of view and prestige to his sense of the urgent need for insight. A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding. As Innis got more insight he abandoned any mere point of view in his presentation of knowledge. When he interrelates the development of the steam press with 'the consolidation of the vernaculars' and the rise of nationalism and revolution he is not reporting anybody's point of view, least of all his own. He is setting up a mosaic configuration or galaxy for insight … Innis makes no effort to "spell out" the interrelations between the components in his galaxy. He offers no consumer packages in his later work, but only do-it-yourself kits...

Understanding Media (1964)
Context: Radio affects most intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and the listener. That is the immediate aspect of radio. A private experience. The subliminal depths of radio are charged with the resonating echoes of tribal horns and antique drums. This is inherent in the very nature of this medium, with its power to turn the psyche and society into a single echo chamber. (p. 261)

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 26

1970s, The Education of Mike McManus, TVOntario, December 28 1977

Take Today : The Executive as Dropout (1972)
Context: Only puny secrets need protection. Big secrets are protected by public incredulity. You can actually dissipate a situation by giving it maximal coverage. As to alarming people, that's done by rumours, not by coverage. (p. 92)

Letter to Robert Fulford, 1964. Letters of Marshall McLuhan (1987), p. 300
1960s
Context: My main theme is the extension of the nervous system in the electric age, and thus, the complete break with five thousand years of mechanical technology. This I state over and over again. I do not say whether it is a good or bad thing. To do so would be meaningless and arrogant.

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 186

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 94

It's called being mass man.
1970s, The Education of Mike McManus, TVOntario, December 28 1977

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 216; this paragraph was quoted as "context (0) - THE INNIS MODE" by John Brunner, the epigraph or first chapter in his novel Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Context: There is nothing willful or arbitrary about the Innis mode of expression. Were it to be translated into perspective prose, it would not only require huge space, but the insight into the modes of interplay among forms of organisation would also be lost. Innis sacrificed point of view and prestige to his sense of the urgent need for insight. A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding. As Innis got more insight he abandoned any mere point of view in his presentation of knowledge. When he interrelates the development of the steam press with 'the consolidation of the vernaculars' and the rise of nationalism and revolution he is not reporting anybody's point of view, least of all his own. He is setting up a mosaic configuration or galaxy for insight … Innis makes no effort to "spell out" the interrelations between the components in his galaxy. He offers no consumer packages in his later work, but only do-it-yourself kits...

1970s, The Education of Mike McManus, TVOntario, December 28 1977

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 216; this paragraph was quoted as "context (0) - THE INNIS MODE" by John Brunner, the epigraph or first chapter in his novel Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Context: There is nothing willful or arbitrary about the Innis mode of expression. Were it to be translated into perspective prose, it would not only require huge space, but the insight into the modes of interplay among forms of organisation would also be lost. Innis sacrificed point of view and prestige to his sense of the urgent need for insight. A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding. As Innis got more insight he abandoned any mere point of view in his presentation of knowledge. When he interrelates the development of the steam press with 'the consolidation of the vernaculars' and the rise of nationalism and revolution he is not reporting anybody's point of view, least of all his own. He is setting up a mosaic configuration or galaxy for insight … Innis makes no effort to "spell out" the interrelations between the components in his galaxy. He offers no consumer packages in his later work, but only do-it-yourself kits...

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 280

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 245

"The Care and Feeding of Communication Innovation", Dinner Address to Conference on 8 mm Sound Film and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 8 November 1961
1960s

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 230

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 271

1970s, The Education of Mike McManus, TVOntario, December 28 1977

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 220

The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
Context: The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village. (p. 36)

Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 216; this paragraph was quoted as "context (0) - THE INNIS MODE" by John Brunner, the epigraph or first chapter in his novel Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Context: There is nothing willful or arbitrary about the Innis mode of expression. Were it to be translated into perspective prose, it would not only require huge space, but the insight into the modes of interplay among forms of organisation would also be lost. Innis sacrificed point of view and prestige to his sense of the urgent need for insight. A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding. As Innis got more insight he abandoned any mere point of view in his presentation of knowledge. When he interrelates the development of the steam press with 'the consolidation of the vernaculars' and the rise of nationalism and revolution he is not reporting anybody's point of view, least of all his own. He is setting up a mosaic configuration or galaxy for insight … Innis makes no effort to "spell out" the interrelations between the components in his galaxy. He offers no consumer packages in his later work, but only do-it-yourself kits...

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Source: War and Peace in the Global Village

1960s, Understanding Media (1964)
Source: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

1960s, The Medium is the Message (1967)
Source: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

1960s, The Medium is the Message (1967)

Source: Take Today: The Executive as Dropout

The Medium is the Message (1967), A chapter sub-heading attributed by McLuhan to Alfred North Whitehead

Source: 1980s, Laws of Media: The New Science (with Eric McLuhan) (1988), p. 120

quoted in Advertising Age, Sep. 3, 1976
1970s
Variant: Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century
Context: Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.

Source: 1960s, The Medium is the Message (1967), p. 26
Source: The Medium is the Massage

Source: 1990s and beyond, The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011), p. 352

The Critic, Volume 33, Thomas More Association, 1974, p. 12
1970s

1970s, Culture Is Our Business (1970)