Georg Simmel

The human being is a bridge between two abysses: nature and spirit.

The superficiality of modern life is its deepest truth.

The essence of communication is misunderstanding.

The soul is a battlefield where the forces of life and death struggle for supremacy.

The essence of art is that it creates a world that is more real than reality.

The individual is a point of intersection of infinite lines of influence.

The meaning of history is that it has no meaning.

The most profound experiences are often the most fleeting.

The tragedy of the modern world is that it is too full of meaning and too empty of life.

The essence of religion is that it is a longing for the impossible.

The stranger is close to us insofar as we feel between him and ourselves common features of a national, social, occupational, or generally human nature.

The metropolis exacts from man a different kind of consciousness than does rural life.

Conflict is designed to resolve divergent dualisms; it is a way of achieving some kind of unity.

The deepest problems of modern life derive from the attempt of the individual to maintain the independence and individuality of his existence against the sovereign powers of society.

Money is the most terrible destroyer of form.

To the extent that money, with its colourlessness and its indifferent quality, can become a common denominator of all values, it becomes the frightful leveller — it hollows out the core of things, their peculiarities, their specific values and their uniqueness and incomparability in a way which is beyond repair.

Just as soon as the lower classes begin to copy their style, thereby crossing the line of demarcation the upper classes have drawn and destroying the uniformity of their coherence, the upper classes turn away from this style and adopt a new one, which in its turn differentiates them from the masses; and thus the game goes merrily on.

Judging from the ugly and repugnant things that are sometimes in vogue, it would seem as though fashion were desirous of exhibiting its power by getting us to adopt the most atrocious things for its sake alone.

By my existence I am nothing more than an empty place, an outline,that is reserved within being in general. Given with it, though, is the duty to fill in this empty place. That is my life.

The intellectually sophisticated person is indifferent to all genuine individuality, because relationships and reactions result from it which cannot be exhausted with logical operations.