Theodor W. Adorno Quotes

I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You've got to just stand there and take it.

Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.

We do not support rebellion against our rulers even if they are unjust. We do not make supplications against them and do not set any revolution against them.

I have no power, no independence.

You have no power or authority, of course.... Is there anything we can appear to do?

That’s the trouble with inquisitors and censors. They become fascinated by what they deplore.

What is a firm hand to me, of what use to me is this astonishing power if I cannot change the order of things, if I cannot make the sun set in the east, that suffering diminish and that beings no longer die?

Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em.

I can't stop [Donald Trump] from doing what he wants to do.

If disorder is the rule with you, you will be penalized for installing order.

One so small Who knowing nothing knows but to obey.

It a wretched thing to suffer at the hand of one of whom we cannot complain.

Wherever men do things, other men will arise who will explain to them how things should be done.

Remember that no one ever kicks a dead dog.

If every one said orders were impossible to carry out when they were received where would you be? Where would we all be if you just said, "Impossible," when orders came?

Freedom is only granted us that obedience may be more perfect.

Alan Rickman told me to do a play, so I did. Because when Alan Rickman tells you do something, you go and do it.

Therefore, in my incontrovertible capacity as plaintiff and defendant judge and accused, I condemn this nature, which has so brazenly and unceremoniously inflicted this suffering... since I am unable to destroy Nature, I am destroying myself, solely out of weariness of having to endure a tyranny in which there is no guilty party.

"I just don't know," I said, my voice sounding bumby, not like mine, "how do you help someone who doesn't want your help. What do you do when you can't do anything?"

We should still pray. We have no other authority but to pray.

Give obedience where 'tis truly owed.

In its narrowest acceptation, order means obedience. A government is said to preserve order if it succeeds in getting itself obeyed.

Political advice is a bit like your average Christmas fruitcake: something everyone gives and no one wants.

We all have a tendency to want order in our lives. But order presupposes authority, and authority presupposes, sooner or later, that we'll all need hooves. It's going to happen sooner or later, isn't it? You know it is.

If you want the law to leave you alone, keep your hair trimmed and your boots shined.