Quotes: re: Walter Benjamin

"German philosopher Walter Benjamin was an inveterate collector of books. He also tirelessly collected quotations from books in little notebooks with black covers. Quotations became the very center of his written work. They were the way he entered into the vision of another's work and listened to tradition. To Benjamin, to achieve the essential in the quotation was to bring the truth to light." 

–– Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), German-born American Jewish writer and political philosopher re: Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, essayist

Source: Quote from Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books, 1969), 58. found in Anne West. Mapping: The Intelligence of Artistic Work. 2011. p. 196. 

via: Sketchbook 18, 2012, p. 122.

Quotes: Paul Rand

"The artist is a collector of things imaginary or real. He accumulates things with the same enthusiasm that a little boy stuffs his pockets. The scrap heap and the museum are embraced with equal curiosity. He takes snapshots, makes notes and records impressions on tablecloths or newspapers, on backs of envelopes or matchbooks. Why one thing and not another is part of the mystery, but he is omnivorous." 

–– Paul Rand (1914-1996), American art director and graphic designer 

Source: Paul Rand. Paul Rand: A Designer's Art. Yale University Press, 1985; p. 79 

via Sketchbook 17, 2011, p. 67