THE ANGEL OF HISTORY

“There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. It depicts an angel who looks like he's about to turn away from something. He has his face turned to the past. Where a sequence of events is presented to us, he sees only one catastrophe, which never ceases to pile ruins upon ruins and hurl them at his feet. But a storm blows from the side of heaven that gets caught in his wings. It pushes him irresistibly towards the future, to which his back is turned, while the pile of ruins in front of him reaches to the sky. This storm is what we call progress."