Luhmann Niklas Quotes & Sayings

The work of art is an ostentatiously improbable occurrence. — Niklas Luhmann

He let me see in that strangely handsome face that he was thinking about her not without her clothes on, but eventually without her skin. — Laurell K. Hamilton

The German sociologist Niklas Luhmann once observed that the simple act of asking yourself, "Where did I put my keys?" performs unexpected magic: it transforms the world into a catalog of possible key locations.1 Under the couch, somewhere the dog or the baby moved — Ian Bogost

Reality is what one does not perceive when one perceives it. — Niklas Luhmann

In the twentieth century, one encounters artworks that seek to cancel the difference between a real and an imagined reality by presenting themselves in ways that make them indistinguishable from real objects. Should we take this trend as an internal reaction of art against itself? ... No ordinary object insists on being taken for an ordinary thing, but a work that does so betrays itself by this very effort. The function of art in such a case is to reproduce the difference of art. But the mere fact that art seeks to cancel this difference and fails in its effort to do so perhaps says more about art than could any excuse or critique. — Niklas Luhmann

Humans cannot communicate; not even their brains can communicate; not even their conscious minds can communicate. Only communication can communicate. — Niklas Luhmann

Mrs. D hugged Cole's middle, hard, and the music cut out just in time for her compliment to carry across the room. I knew you would be a magnificent man. — Debra Anastasia

To get into the best society, nowadays, one has either to feed people, amuse people, or shock people - that is all! — Oscar Wilde

We expect too much of new buildings, and too little of ourselves. — Jane Jacobs

Communication is improbable. — Niklas Luhmann

Sleep had ceased to be a mere physical necessity; it was something voluptuous, and debauch more than a relief. — George Orwell

Civility and etiquette, gentlemen, are all important. — Hal Duncan

Our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States. It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments. — Peter Arnett

I'm a minnow compared to Caring with all his restaurants and clubs, and good luck to him. I've met him a couple of times. I've got no personal rancour against Richard Caring at all. — Robin Birley

I needed to talk about my real personal history, in order to become free of it. — Paulo Coelho

You've got to give great tools to small teams. Pick good people, use small teams and give them great tools so that they are very productive in terms of what they are doing. — Bill Gates

Belief, Faith, and God do not ask you to follow them blindly. Choose it with all your heart! — Nikita Dudani

Anyone looking at you would write you off as a brainless nincompoop with about as much intelligence as a dead rabbit. — P.G. Wodehouse