“The spoken word was the first technology by which man was able to let go of his environment in order to grasp it in a new way.”
Technology
“Historians and archaeologists will one day discover that the ads of our time are the richest and most faithful reflections that any society ever made of its entire range of activities.”
SocietyAll Quotes by Marshall McLuhan
“The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.”
Car“I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.”
Art“Mass transportation is doomed to failure in North America because a person's car is the only place where he can be alone and think.”
Alone“As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of 'do it yourself.'”
Age“Art is anything you can get away with.”
Art“Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century.”
Art“It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame.”
Technology“Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior.”
Experience“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.”
Communication“A commercial society whose members are essentially ascetic and indifferent in social ritual has to be provided with blueprints and specifications for evoking the right tone for every occasion.”
Society“In this electronic age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of information, moving toward the technological extension of consciousness.”
Age“Money is just the poor man's credit card.”
Money“We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror.”
Future“Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either.”
Education“The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”
Technology“Historians and archaeologists will one day discover that the ads of our time are the richest and most faithful reflections that any society ever made of its entire range of activities.”
Society“Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century.”
Art“There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.”
Nature“Art at its most significant is a Distant Early Warning System that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.”
Art