Byung-Chul Han Quotes

Zen Buddhism is inspired by a basic trust in the Here, a basic trust in the world.

The emptiness of Zen Buddhism... creates a neighborly nearness between things.

We can define rituals as symbolic techniques of making oneself at home in the world. They transforming being at home to being in the world. They turn the world into a reliable place. They are to time what a home is to space. They render time habitable.

At the deepest level, the desire for complete union with God exhibits a narcissistic structure.

To die is to wander.

Stories on digital platforms like Facebook or Instagram are not genuine stories. They have no narrative duration. Rather, they are just sequences of momentary impressions that do not tell us anything.

However, the disappearance of domination does not entail freedom. Instead, it makes freedom and constraint coincide. Thus, the achievement-subject gives itself over to compulsive freedom--that is, to the free constraint of maximizing achievement. Excess work and performance escalate into auto-exploitation.

Rituals are symbolic acts. They represent, and pass on, the values and orders on which a community is based. They bring forth a community without communication; today, however, communication without community prevails.

Catastrophic fatality abruptly switches over into salvation.

The liturgy of emptiness dispels the capitalist economy of the commodity.

Pornography completes the deritualization of love.

Whatever is merely positive is lifeless. Negativity is essential to vitality.

Happiness is the proof that time can accommodate eternity.

It is a sign of sovereignty to risk one's life, that is, to turn life into a game.

When power is separated from any communicative context, it becomes naked violence.