A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

Compiled by William Kuhns
©2026 Marshall McLuhan Estate

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Unless you see both Ground and Figure simultaneously, you don’t have the whole picture.
Quoted by Sister Bede Sullivan in Who Was Marshall McLuhan? (1994), p 170
Quote #2314
Year: 1994
Chapter: Figure/Ground

Drawn to McLuhan #12

Whimsical vintage-style illustration of a man in a top hat perched on a crescent moon, fishing with a line that strings together a chorus line of dancers, a line of men, a factory assembly line, and a clothesline of laundry, all suspended above a globe of the Earth.
“We have all noticed how lineality has faded from the current scene. The chorus line, the stag line, the assembly line, all have gone the way of the clothes line.”
Illustration of two medieval soldiers in armor playing cards by candlelight atop a castle wall, while a distant army with ladders approaches across the countryside.
“The price of eternal vigilance is indifference.”
Dark, moody illustration of a giant smartphone with muscular humanoid arms and legs, its screen showing a glowing image of Earth crisscrossed with bright network connection lines.
"The next medium, whatever it is -- it may be the extension of consciousness -- will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form."
Four-panel comic strip showing an office worker at a computer gradually transforming, panel by panel, into a snarling green troll-like monster as his desk grows messier and the room darkens.
“The global village is a place of very arduous interfaces and very abrasive situations.”
Photo-realistic image of a television news anchor at a studio desk shrugging with raised palms, beneath an on-screen headline reading "Real Video or Deepfake? Experts are Split."
“The difference between factitious and fictitious tends to dissolve.”
Split illustration joined by a handshake inside overlapping speech bubbles: an elderly bard playing a lyre beside a campfire on the left, and an armored ancient warrior shaking hands with a red rocket-booted superhero in front of a glowing television screen on the right.
“The culture heroes of preliteracy and postliteracy alike are robots.”
Comic-style illustration of a smug, cigar-smoking man in a pinstriped suit reclining in a leather armchair with his feet up on an ottoman, a globe and bookshelves behind him and a thought bubble with an exclamation point.
“One of the nicest things about being big is the luxury of thinking little.”
Cartoon illustration of an open-plan office in which the workers are drawn as giant bees hunched over keyboards at computer monitors, beneath a wall sign reading "App-Lied Intelligence."
“Like the bees in the plant world, men have always been the sex organs of the technological world.”
Illustration of a hand holding a smartphone that displays a mock nutrition-facts label titled "This Podcast's Nutritive Value," listing percentages such as Tribal Affirmation Score and Rage Incitement Factor, against a softly blurred living-room background.
“It is we ourselves who serve these environments.”
© The Estate of Marshall McLuhan