Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)
Source: (1940), XVIII
Durch die Künstler wird die Menschheit ein Individuum, indem sie Vor welt und Nachwelt in der Gegenwart verknüpfen. Sie sind das höhere Seelenorgan, wo die Lebensgeister der ganzen 15 äussern Menschheit zusammentreffen und in welchem die innere zunächst wirkt.
“Selected Ideas (1799-1800)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #64 [cf. Heidegger]
Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)
Source: (1940), XVIII
Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer
As reported by Elizabeth Brentano (Bettina) in a letter to Goethe, 27 May 1810.
Quoted in Edwin Burgum The new criticism (1930), p. 179
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
Herbert Read (1893–1968) English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art
Source: The Philosophy of Anarchism (1940), P. 11-12
“Each one of us is the storehouse of all the past. The individual is the human who is all mankind.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher
1960s, Freedom From The Known (1969)
Context: There has been outward progress from the bullock cart to the jet plane but psychologically the individual has not changed at all, and the structure of society throughout the world has been created by individuals. The outward social structure is the result of the inward psychological structure of our human relationships, for the individual is the result of the total experience, knowledge and conduct of man. Each one of us is the storehouse of all the past. The individual is the human who is all mankind.
“Science is the future of mankind.”
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (1933) French physicist
Quantum Physics: From Basic Concepts to Applications. Honeywell-Nobel Laureate Lecture Series at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (September 15, 2008), at 1:52 http://www.honeywellscience.com/virtual_lab/default.sps?categoryname=Claude%20Cohen-Tannoudji&videoid=.
“Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.”
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
As quoted in The London Daily Telegraph (16 June 1992)
1990s
Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928) Physician, philosopher, writer
Source: Essays in tektology, 1980, p. 1-2.
“The spiritual dignity of this new humane life for mankind is the Spirit of Man himself sacrosanct.”
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)
A Testament (1957)