A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

Compiled by William Kuhns
©2026 Marshall McLuhan Estate

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Moreover, in a simultaneous world which structures information at the speed of light, effects are simultaneous with their causes, or in a sense "precede" their causes. Even in the most mundane matters, we say that "the time was ripe" when something drastic happens, that is, the effects arrive before the causes.”
Letter to James W. Carey, March 25, 1974, in Letters, p 491
Quote #912
Year: 1974
Chapters: Causality | Simultaneity
↪ Also at #6402
Now, in tribal society there is no unconscious. It’s only the visual man, the highly literate man, who carefully stuffs things into his unconscious. The tribal man has everything up in his consciousness.
“Speaking Freely”, interview with Edwin Newman on WNBC-TV, December 27, 1970, transcript, p 912
Quote #7203
Year: 1970
Chapter: Unconscious

Drawn to McLuhan #7

Illustration of a young girl blowing out a cake covered with far more lit candles than her stated age, under a "Happy 8th Birthday!" banner, surrounded by cheering children and wrapped gifts.
“We live years ahead of our thinking.”
Illustration of a man in a "YAY ME!" hoodie holding cash, suspended and controlled like a marionette by strings attached to a giant grinning money-bag figure overhead, cheered on by a large crowd.
“The man of great wealth in the new information world is a puppet employee of his own wealth.”
Illustration of an ornate gold picture frame containing a headless figure in a navy suit and red tie standing before draped curtains, with an engraved plaque below.
“The irrational has become the major dimension of experience in our world.”
Stylized photo-illustration of a jazz quintet (trumpet, saxophone, upright bass, piano, and drums) performing on a dim stage, with colorful glowing sound waves swirling around the instruments.
“Jazz is a survival strategy for people harassed by cacophony.”
Comic-style illustration of a man with an eyepatch peering fearfully from inside a wooden shack while a long line of identical men wearing dark sunglasses and carrying white canes march past outside.
“In the land of the blind the one eyed man is a hunted criminal.”
Illustration of a lone hiker with a walking stick standing at the edge of a smoking volcanic crater on a rocky mountain trail, with a peaceful green village valley visible in the distance beyond the clouds.
“For our problems, like our means and opportunities, are of a scope beyond those of any previous age.”
Painterly illustration of two seagulls swooping and diving through looping, ribbon-like flight trails against a blue-to-orange sunset sky, framed by large quotation marks.
“Conversation is, for me, something like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a game in which you play all sorts of nose-dives and air-tumbles.”
Illustration of a teenage girl taking a selfie in her bedroom, whose walls are covered edge to edge with dozens of Polaroid-style photos of friends and family.
The nobody in real life is a person who becomes quite intractable [in demanding] "Who am I" and "How do I re-establish my image, myself in this world."
Illustration of a young woman with a long braid sitting on a park bench in a leafy park, anxiously looking at her phone with a speech bubble showing a text message about keeping a relationship secret from her parents.
“And as our senses have gone outside us, Big Brother goes inside.”
© The Estate of Marshall McLuhan