Quotessence
Home / Authors / Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllThinkingMadnessPoliticalFormMenPeopleRelationIfsKnowsWayOrderPhilosophyDoePowerReasonSocialDiscourseInstitutionsPrisonBook

Famous Michel Foucault Quotes

“I'm very proud that some people think that I'm a danger for the intellectual health of students. When people start thinking of health in intellectual activities, I think there is something wrong. In their opinion I am a dangerous man, since I am a crypto-Marxist, an irrationalist, a nihilist.”

PeopleThinkingMenOpinionDangerousDangerStudentsProudActivityIntellectualMarxistNihilistDangerous Man
Book:Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault
Create image

“People will be surprised at the eagerness with which we went aboutpretending to rouse from its slumber a sexuality which every­thing-our discourses, our customs, our institutions, our regulations, our knowledges-was busy producing in the light of day and broadcasting to noisy accompaniment.”

PeopleLightInstitutionsBusySexualityCustomsRegulationDiscourseNoisySlumberEagernessBroadcasting
Book:The History of Sexuality: An Introduction
Create image

“There is a sort of myth of History that philosophers have.... History for philosophers is some sort of great, vast continuity in which the freedom of individuals and economic or social determinations come and get entangled. When someone lays a finger on one of those great themes--continuity, the effective exercise of human liberty, how individual liberty is articulated with social determinations--when someone touches one of these three myths, these good people start crying out that History is being raped or murdered.”

PeopleHumansThreeIndividualSocialLibertyHistoryEconomicCryExerciseDeterminationLaysFingersPhilosopherMythThemeGood PeopleContinuityIndividual Liberty
Author:Michel Foucault
Create image

“On the level of investigative results, John Boswell's methodology has led to the discovery that what has been called the repression of homosexuality does not date back to Christianity properly speaking, but developed within the Christian era at a much later date. In this type of analysis it is important to be aware of the way in which people conceived of their own sexuality.”

PeopleWayDoeHas BeensImportantChristianLevelsResultsChristianityTypeDiscoverySexualityErasAnalysisHomosexualityRepressionMethodology
Author:Michel Foucault
Create image

“If I open a book and see that the author is accusing an adversary of "infantile leftism" I shut it again right away. That's not my way of doing things; I don't belong to the world of people who do things that way. I insist on this difference as something essential: a whole morality is at stake; the one that concerns the search for truth and the relation to the other.”

PeopleIfsWorldWayBookWholeDifferencesMoralityEssentialsConcernRelationMy WayStakesAdversariesSearch For TruthInfantileAccusing
Author:Michel Foucault
Create image

“It is one of my targets to show people that a lot of things that are part of their landscape - that people are universal - are the result of some very precise historical changes. All my analyses are against the idea of universal necessities in human existence. They show the arbitrariness of institutions and show which space of freedom we can still enjoy and how many changes can still be made.”

PeopleHumansMadeStillsIdeasShowsEnjoySpaceResultsExistenceUniversalInstitutionsHistoricalLandscapeAnalysisTargetPreciseHuman ExistenceHistorical Change
Author:Michel Foucault
Create image

“Because they claim to be concerned with the welfare of whole societies, governments arrogate to themselves the right to pass off as mere abstract profit or loss the human unhappiness that their decisions provoke or their negligence permits. It is a duty of an international citizenship to always bring the testimony of people's suffering to the eyes and ears of governments, sufferings for which it's untrue that they are not responsible. The suffering of men must never be a mere silent residue of policy. It grounds an absolute right to stand up and speak to those who hold power.”

PeopleMenHumansWholeGovernmentEyeSufferingSpeakLossDecisionPolicyDutyConcernedEarsClaimsAbsolutesResponsibleMereSilentInternationalProfitWelfareAbstractUnhappinessPermitProvokingCitizenshipTestimonyUntrueNegligence
Author:Michel Foucault
Create image