Hans Magnus Enzensberger Quotes & Sayings

Who is to emerge from the flood if we go under in it? — Hans Magnus Enzensberger

I don't wish to defend everything that has been done in the name of Utopia. But I think many of the attacks misconceive its nature and function. As I have tried to suggest, utopia is not mainly about providing detailed blueprints for social reconstruction. Its concern with ends is about making us think about possible worlds. It is about inventing and imagining worlds for our contemplation and delight. It opens up our minds to the possibilities of the human condition. — Hans Magnus Enzensberger

The reality in which a camera turns up is always posed, e.g., the moon landing. — Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Culture is a little like dropping an Alka-Seltzer into a glass - you don't see it, but somehow it does something. — Hans Magnus Enzensberger

A pathological business, writing, don't you think? Just look what a writer actually does: all that unnatural tense squatting and hunching, all those rituals: pathological! — Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Mediocrity in politics is not to be despised. Greatness is not needed. — Hans Magnus Enzensberger