“That claim cannot be settled cheaply.”

—  Walter Benjamin , book Theses on the Philosophy of History

Source: Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940), II
Context: There is a secret agreement between past generations and the present one. Our coming was expected on earth. Like every generation that preceded us, we have been endowed with a weak Messianic power, a power to which the past has a claim. That claim cannot be settled cheaply.

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Walter Benjamin photo
Walter Benjamin 70
German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892… 1892–1940

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