The great writers of aphorisms read as if they had all known each other well.
Elias Canetti

The paranoiac is the exact image of the ruler. The only difference is their position in the world. One might even think the paranoiac the more impressive of the two because he is sufficient unto himself and cannot be shaken by failure.
Elias Canetti

The planet's survival has become so uncertain that any effort, any thought that presupposes an assured future amounts to a mad gamble.
Elias Canetti

The process of writing has something infinite about it. Even though it is interrupted each night, it is one single notation.
Elias Canetti

The profoundest thoughts of the philosophers have something trickle about them. A lot disappears in order for something to suddenly appear in the palm of the hand.
Elias Canetti

There is no doubt: the study of man is just beginning, at the same time that his end is in sight.
Elias Canetti

There is no such thing as an ugly language. Today I hear every language as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the earth.
Elias Canetti

There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange.
Elias Canetti

When you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about.
Elias Canetti

Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being sitting inside were making fun of you.
Elias Canetti

Whether or not God is dead: it is impossible to keep silent about him who was there for so long.
Elias Canetti

Words are not too old, only people are too old if they use the same words too frequently.
Elias Canetti