Quotessence
Home / Authors / Slavoj Žižek

Slavoj Žižek Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllPhilosophyIfsThinkingRealityWayIdeologyTodayPeopleProblemStatesCapitalismIdeologicalDesireHumansKindLacanPoliticsSocialStillsKnows

Famous Slavoj Žižek Quotes

“What if the Soviet intervention was a blessing in disguise? It saved the myth that if the Soviets were not to intervene, there would have been some flowering authentic democratic socialism and so on. I'm a little bit more of a pessimist there. I think that the Soviets - it's a very sad lesson - by their intervention, saved the myth.”

IfsThinkingLittlesHas BeensBitsLessonsBlessingLittle BitDemocraticMythSavedSocialismWhat IfSovietDisguiseInterventionPessimistFloweringVery SadBlessings In DisguiseDemocratic Socialism
Author:Slavoj Žižek
Create image

“The only ‘realistic’ prospect is to ground a new political universality by opting for the impossible, fully assuming the place of the exception, with no taboos, no a priori norms (‘human rights,’ ‘democracy’), respect for which would prevent us from ‘resignifying’ terror, the ruthless exercise of power, the spirit of sacrifice … if this radical choice is decried by some bleeding-heart liberals as Linksfaschismus, so be it!”

IfsHumansHeartPoliticalSpiritChoicesDemocracyRightsImpossibleSacrificeExerciseAssumingHuman RightsTerrorRadicalExceptionRealisticNormRuthlessTabooBleedingUniversalityBleeding Heart
Author:Slavoj Žižek
Create image

“Obama has already demonstrated an extraordinary ability to change the limits of what one can say publicly. His greatest achievement up to now is that, in his refined non-provocative way, he has introduced into public speech topics which had hitherto been de facto unsayable: the continuing importance of race in politics, the positive role of atheists in public life, the necessity to talk with "enemies" like Iran or Hamas, and so on. This is just what US politics needs today more than anything, if it is to break out of its gridlock: new words which will change the way we think and act.”

IfsThinkingWayNeedsTodayAbilityRaceEnemyRolesBreakLimitsSpeechAchievementImportanceExtraordinaryAtheistIranContinuingTopicsPublic LifeRefinedProvocativeBreak OutHamasGreatest AchievementNew WordsAbility To ChangeGridlock
Author:Slavoj Žižek
Create image

“Friends told me that the latest trend, at least in Europe, is public sex. They showed me some clips, and they're terrifying. A couple enters a streetcar, half-full, simply takes a seat, undresses, and starts to do it. You can see from surprised faces that it's not staged. It's pure working-class suburb. But what's fascinating is that the people all look, and then they politely ignore it. The message is that even if you're together in public with people, it still counts as private space.”

PeopleIfsLooksStillsTogetherFacesSexSpaceHalfClassCouplePureMessagesEuropeSeatsFascinatingTrendsWorking ClassSuburbsClipHalf FullLatest Trends
Author:Slavoj Žižek
Create image

“For me, Stalinism was even a greater philosophical problem than Nazism. Under Nazism, if you were a Jew, you were simply killed, no questions asked, you had nothing to prove. Under Stalinism, of course, most [victims] were on trial for false accusations; most of them were not traitors. There is one interesting feature: that they were tortured or through some kind of blackmail forced to confess to being traitors.”

IfsKindProblemCoursesInterestingGreaterProvePhilosophicalVictimJewTrialsFeaturesTraitorNazismAccusationBlackmailStalinismQuestions AskedFalse Accusation
Author:Slavoj Žižek
Create image

“Word is murder of a thing, not only in the elementary sense of implying its absence - by naming a thing, we treat it as absent, as dead, although it is still present - but above all in the sense of its radical dissection: the word 'quarters' the thing, it tears it out of the embedment in its concrete context, it treats its component parts as entities with an autonomous existence: we speak about color, form, shape, etc., as if they possessed self-sufficient being.”

IfsStillsSelfFormSpeakExistenceTearsColorShapesTreatsMurderAbsenceRadicalSufficientEtcQuartersConcretePossessedEntityComponentsAbsentAutonomousSelf SufficientImplyingDissection
Book:Enjoy Your Symptom!: Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out
Create image