Georg Simmel

The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life.

The metropolis, which is the seat of the money economy, is the place of this highest development of individuality.

The eye cannot endure the sight of the absolute, so it creates a perspective.

The essence of fashion is that it is always in the process of becoming, and never is.

The tragic element of culture is that the objective spirit, once created, comes to stand over and against the subjective spirit, whose expression it is, and ultimately crushes it.

Money is the purest reification of means, a tool that has become an absolute end.

The soul's tragedy lies in the fact that it must destroy what it creates in order to create something new.

The secret of beauty is that it is not beautiful enough.

The essence of friendship is that it is a relationship of equals, but equality is always a precarious balance.

The problem of society is not how to abolish evil, but how to make it productive.

The individual is not only a member of society, but also, in a certain sense, society itself.

The modern individual is an atom, but an atom with a soul.

The value of an object is not in its usefulness, but in its exchangeability.

The deeper one goes into the individual, the more one finds society.

The tragedy of culture is that objective culture, once created, becomes estranged from the subjective spirit that produced it.

The most important things are not to be found in the conscious, but in the unconscious.

The essence of love is that it is a bridge between two solitudes.

The secret of life is to live as if one were immortal, and to die as if one were mortal.

The blasé attitude is the subjective reflection of the objective structure of the metropolis.

The more abstract money becomes, the more concrete its effects.