Gyorgy Lukacs Quotes & Sayings

This feeling that
contrary to the consciously philosophic and historical conception which proclaims unceasing and peaceful progress
one is experiencing a last brief, irretrievable intellectual prime of humanity manifests itself in the greatest representatives of this period in different ways, in keeping with the unconscious character of this feeling. — Gyorgy Lukacs

Thus the fundamental form-determining intention of the novel is objectivised as the psychology of the novel's heroes: they are seekers. — Gyorgy Lukacs

Orthodox Marxism, therefore, does not imply the uncritical acceptance of the results of Marx's investigations. It is not the 'belief' in this or that thesis, nor the exegesis of a 'sacred' book. On the contrary, orthodoxy refers exclusively to method. It is the scientific conviction that dialectical materialism is the road to truth and that its methods can be developed, expanded and deepened only along the lines laid down by its founders. It is the conviction, moreover, that all attempts to surpass or 'improve' it have led and must lead to over-simplification, triviality and eclecticism. — Gyorgy Lukacs

There is no reasonable doubt that existentialism will soon become the predominant philosophical current among bourgeois intellectuals. (1949) — Gyorgy Lukacs

IT is no accident that Marx should have begun with an analysis of commodities when, in the two great works of his mature period, he set out to portray capitalist society in its totality and to lay bare its fundamental nature. For at this stage in the history of mankind there is no problem that does not ultimately lead back to that question and there is no solution that could not be found in the solution to the riddle of commodity-structure. — Gyorgy Lukacs

From the ethical point of view, no one can escape responsibility with the excuse that he is only an individual, on whom the fate of the world does not depend. Not only can this not be known objectively for certain, because it is always possible that it will depend precisely on the individual, but this kind of thinking is also made impossible by the very essence of ethics, by conscience and the sense of responsibility. — Gyorgy Lukacs

In montage's original form as photomontage, it is capable of striking effects and on occasion it can even become a powerful political weapon. Such effects arise from its technique of juxtaposing heterogeneous, unrelated pieces of reality torn from their context. A good photomontage has the same effect as a good joke. — Gyorgy Lukacs

Kafka was a realist — Gyorgy Lukacs

Philosophy is transcendental homelessness; it is the urge to be at home everywhere — Gyorgy Lukacs