A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

Compiled by William Kuhns
©2026 Marshall McLuhan Estate

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Our most ordinary and conventional attitudes seem suddenly twisted into gargoyles and grotesques. Familiar institutions and associations seem at times menacing and malignant. These multiple transformations, which are the normal consequence of introducing new media into any society whatever, need special study and will be the subject of another volume on Understanding Media in the world of our time.
The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man, (1962), p 279
Quote #7070
Year: 1962
Chapter: Transform

Drawn to McLuhan #3

Digital illustration of a large glass bowl on a dark surface containing a miniature two-story dollhouse interior at night; a family watches TV in a lit living room downstairs while a baby sleeps in a nursery upstairs.
"As we transfer our whole being to the data bank, privacy will become a ghost or echo of its former self."
Satirical gilt-framed oil painting hanging in a gallery, depicting a shirtless man on horseback against a mountainous steppe landscape, with a plaque reading "Riders on the Steppe, V. Rutin.
"It is a characteristic of all social processes that they become manifest and conspicuous at the moment of their demise."
Comic-style illustration of a TV news reporter and cameraman interviewing near a jungle clearing where a safari hunter crouches with a rifle beside scattered papers, while a giant bearded stone head on a long serpentine neck looms in the trees with a small monkey nearby.
"Never hunt anything small."
Black-and-white halftone illustration of three guitar cases leaning against a brick wall beside a "Stage Entrance" sign, with band posters mounted on the wall above.
"The future of consciousness is already assuming a very different pattern, a very different character."
Illustration of an anthropomorphic smartphone with a smiling face, arms, and legs, cupping three small human figures in its hands, each absorbed in staring at their own phone, on a park path with a city skyline behind them.
"The tools we shape, reshape us."
Watercolor-style illustration of a barefoot woman wearing a VR headset, reaching out with both hands as if touching an unseen object, standing in an empty room with a bare wood floor.
"There is no inside or outside under electronic conditions."
Illustrated portrait of a bespectacled man in a suit and cardigan pulling apart a glowing yin-yang symbol with both hands, set against a bookshelf of philosophy titles and vintage televisions.
"To give both sides tends to ignore the possibility that there may be more sides than two."
© The Estate of Marshall McLuhan