September 27, 1940

Walter Benjamin (July 15, 1892 to September 26 or 27, 1940) was a German thinker of unusual originality. The quality of his friends -- Gershom Scholem, Theodor Adorno, Leo Strauss -- attest to his genius, and today he is even more widely admired. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) is perhaps the best known of his writings.

Walter Benjamin kept notes on things his son Stefan (1918–1972) said. Some are mentioned in the book Walter Benjamin (2008) by Esther Leslie. Benjamin envisaged these "Opinions et Pensees" gathered a booklet format. Here is a sample:

Mammy, the cat is laughing. It is really laughing. But I don't know why it is laughing. It is laughing even when I don't say anything funny. But perhaps cat jokes are different.