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Terry Eagleton

Terry Eagleton Quotes

Literary critic

Terry Eagleton is a renowned British literary critic, known for his research on Marxist literary theory. His work spans a wide range of literary and theoretical topics, influencing cultural studies and political commentary as well.

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All Ifs Language Humans Literature Culture Capitalism Thinking Way Literary Theory Past

Famous Terry Eagleton Quotes

“Understanding is always in some sense retrospective, which is what Hegel meant by remarking that the owl of Minerva flies only at night.”

Night Understanding Owl Hegel Retrospective Minerva

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“If history moves forward, knowledge of it travels backwards, so that in writing of our own recent past we are continually meeting ourselves coming the other way.”

Ifs Way Writing Past Moving Meetings Moving Forward Backwards Recent Past

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“I do not know whether to be delighted or outraged by the fact that Literary Theory: An Introduction was the subject of a study by a well known U.S. business school, which was intrigued to discover how an academic text could become a best-seller.”

Knows Wells Facts School Known Study Subjects Theory Academic Well Known Introduction Delighted Intrigued Sellers Outraged Best Sellers Business School Literary Theory

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“In conscious life, we achieve some sense of ourselves as reasonably unified, coherent selves, and without this action would be impossible. But all this is merely at the 'imaginary' level of the ego, which is no more than the tip of the iceberg of the human subject known to psychoanalysis. The ego is function or effect of a subject which is always dispersed, never identical with itself, strung out along the chains of the discourses which constitute it.”

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“Modern capitalist nations are the fruit of a history of slavery, genocide, violence and exploitation every bit as abhorrent as Mao's China or Stalin's Soviet Union.”

Nations Bits Violence Modern Slavery Unions Fruit China Genocide Soviet Capitalist Exploitation Soviet Union Mao Abhorrent

Author:Terry Eagleton

“History works itself out by an inevitable internal logic.”

Logic Inevitable Internals

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Ivory towers are as rare as bowling alleys in tribal cultures.”

Culture Towers Alleys Ivory Bowling Ivory Tower Bowling Alleys

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Capitalism cannot survive without a working class, while the working class can flourish a lot more freely without capitalism.”

Class Capitalism Working Class

Author:Terry Eagleton

“The liberal state is neutral between capitalism and its critics until the critics look like they are winning.”

Looks States Winning Capitalism Critics

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Socialism is the completion of democracy, not the negation of it.”

Democracy Socialism Completion Negation

Book:Why Marx Was Right

Source: Why Marx Was Right

“Capitalism is the sorcerer's apprentice: it has summoned up powers which have spun wildly out of control and now threaten to destroy us.The task of socialism is not to spur on those powers but to bring them under rational human control.”

Humans Capitalism Tasks Socialism Rational Spurs Apprentice Spun

Author:Terry Eagleton

“If the masses are not thrown a few novels , they may react by throwing up a few barricades.”

Ifs May Novel Mass Thrown Throwing Barricades Throwing Up Literary Theory

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“All consciousness is consciousness of something: in thinking I am aware that my thought is 'pointing towards' some object.”

Thinking Consciousness Objects My Thoughts Pointing

Author:Terry Eagleton

“The present is only understandable through the past, with which it forms a living continuity; and the past is always grasped from our own partial viewpoint within the present.”

Past Form Continuity Viewpoints

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“If we were not called upon to work in order to survive, we might simply lie around all day doing nothing.”

Ifs Might Lying Order Doing Nothing

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“Schizophrenic language has in this sense an interesting resemblance to poetry.”

Language Interesting Resemblance Schizophrenic

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“All desire springs from a lack, which it strives continually to fill.”

Desire Spring Strive Strife

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“Language always pre-exists us: it is always already 'in place', waiting to assign us our places within it.”

Language Waiting

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“It is important to see that, in the critique of ideology, only those interventions will work which make sense to the mystified subject itself.”

Important Subjects Ideology Make Sense Intervention Critique

Book:Ideology: An Introduction

Source: Ideology: An Introduction

“Post-structuralism is among other things a kind of theoretical hangover from the failed uprising of ‘68, a way of keeping the revolution warm at the level of language, blending the euphoric libertarianism of that moment with the stoical melancholia of its aftermath.”

Way Kind Moments Language Levels Revolution Warm Posts That Moment Libertarianism Theoretical Aftermath Hangover Uprising Euphoric Structuralism

Author:Terry Eagleton

“The truth is that the past exists no more than the future, even though it feels as though it does.”

Feels Doe Past Truth Is

Author:Terry Eagleton

“There seems to be something in humanity which will not bow meekly to the insolence of power.”

Seems Humanity Bows Insolence

Book:Why Marx Was Right

Source: Why Marx Was Right

“The most compelling confirmation of Marx's theory of history is late capitalist society. There is a sense in which this case is becoming truer as time passes.”

Cases Theory Becoming Late Capitalist Compelling Time Passes Confirmation

Book:Why Marx Was Right

Source: Why Marx Was Right

“Theology, however implausible many of its truth claims, is one of the most ambitious theoretical arenas left in an increasingly specialized world”

World Left Claims Theology Ambitious Arena Theoretical

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Evil may be 'unscientific' but so is a song or a smile.”

Author:Terry Eagleton

“As far as belief goes, postmodernism prefers to travel light: it has beliefs, to be sure, but it does not have faith”

Doe Light Belief Have Faith Postmodernism Travel Light

Book:The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction

Source: The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction

“Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech.”

Literature Language Speech Ordinary Everyday Quietness Deviate

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“Man eternally tries to get back to an organic past that has slipped just beyond his reach.”

Men Trying Past Get Back

Author:Terry Eagleton

“To claim that science and religion pose different questions to the world is not to suggest that if the bones of Jesus were discovered in Palestine, the pope should get himself down to the dole queue as fast as possible. It is rather to claim that while faith, rather like love, must involve factual knowledge, it is not reducible to it.”

Ifs World Should Different Jesus Claims Bones Pope Palestine Science And Religion Like Love Factual Queues

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Scratch a schoolboy and you find a savage.”

Savages Scratches

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Like all the best radical positions, then, mine is a thoroughly traditionalist one.”

Position Mines Radical All The Best

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“It is false to believe that the sun revolves around the earth, but it is not absurd.”

Believe Earth Sun Absurd

Author:Terry Eagleton

“The government spokesman announces that there is no truth in the charges of widespread corruption within the Cabinet; nobody believes him; he knows that nobody believes him, we know that he knows it, and he knows it too.”

Knows Believe Government Corruption Cabinets

Book:Ideology: An Introduction

Source: Ideology: An Introduction

“When one emphasizes, as Jacques Derrida once remarked, one always overemphasizes.”

Book:The Illusions of Postmodernism

Source: The Illusions of Postmodernism

“A socialist is just someone who is unable to get over his or her astonishment that most people who have lived and died have spent lives of wretched, fruitless, unremitting toil.”

People Died Socialism Socialist Toil Get Over Wretched Astonishment

Book:Ideology: An Introduction

Source: Ideology: An Introduction

“Because subjects like literature and art history have no obvious material pay-off, they tend to attract those who look askance at capitalist notions of utility. The idea of doing something purely for the delight of it has always rattled the grey-bearded guardians of the state. Sheer pointlessness has always been a deeply subversive affair.”

Looks Art Ideas States Literature Pay Subjects Materials Notion Affair Obvious Delight Capitalist Sheer Grey Guardian Utility Subversive Art History Literature And Art Pointlessness

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Christian faith, as I understand it, is not primarily a matter of signing on for the proposition that there exists a Supreme Being, but the kind of commitment made manifest by a human being at the end of his tether, foundering in darkness, pain, and bewilderment, who nevertheless remains faithful to the promise of a transformative love.”

“The Kantian imperative to have the courage to think for oneself has involved a contemptuous disregard for the resources of tradition and an infantile view of authority as inherently oppressive.”

Thinking Views Involved Authority Resources Tradition Oneself Imperatives Disregard Infantile Contemptuous

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Negativity is often looked upon [in the USA] as a kind of thought crime. Not since the advent of socialist realism has the world witnessed such pathological upbeatness.”

World Kind Crime Optimistic Usa Realism Negativity Socialist Advent

Author:Terry Eagleton

“All communication involves faith; indeed, some linguisticians hold that the potential obstacles to acts of verbal understanding are so many and diverse that it is a minor miracle that they take place at all.”

Understanding Communication Miracle Obstacles Diverse Minors

Book:Reason, Faith, & Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate

Source: Reason, Faith, & Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate

“The New Testament is a brutal destroyer of human illusions. If you follow Jesus and don't end up dead, it appears you have some explaining to do. The stark signifier of the human condition is one who spoke up for love and justice and was done to death for his pains. The traumatic truth of human history is a mutilated body.”

Source: Reason, Faith, & Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate

“In the deep night of metaphysics, all cats look black.”

Looks Night Black Cat Metaphysics

Book:Walter Benjamin, Or, Towards a Revolutionary Criticism

Source: Walter Benjamin, Or, Towards a Revolutionary Criticism

“If it is true that we need a degree of certainty to get by, it is also true that too much of the stuff can be lethal.”

Ifs Needs Stuff Too Much Degrees Certainty

Book:The Meaning of Life

Source: The Meaning of Life

“The humanities should constitute the core of any university worth the name.”

Should Humanity Names University Core Arts And Humanities

Author:Terry Eagleton

“After all, if you do not resist the apparently inevitable, you will never know how inevitable the inevitable was.”

Ifs Knows Know How Inevitable Apathy Literary Theory

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Historical determinism is a recipe for political quietism.”

Political Historical Recipes Determinism

Book:Why Marx Was Right

Source: Why Marx Was Right

“Successful revolutions are those which end up by erasing all traces of themselves.”

Ends Successful Revolution

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Capitalism will behave antisocially if it is profitable for it to do so, and that can now mean human devastation on an unimaginable scale. What used to be apocalyptic fantasy is today no more than sober realism.”

Ifs Humans Mean Today Used Fantasy Capitalism Scales Used To Be Behave Realism Sober Profitable Apocalyptic Unimaginable Devastation

Author:Terry Eagleton

“It is silly to call fat people "gravitationally challenged", a self-righteous fetishism of language which is no more than a symptom of political frustration.”

People Self Political Language Silly Fats Frustration Righteous Symptoms Political Correctness Correctness Self Righteous Fat People

Author:Terry Eagleton

“From the viewpoint of political power, culture is absolutely vital. So vital, indeed, that power cannot operate without it. It is culture, in the sense of the everyday habits and beliefs of a people, which beds power down, makes it appear natural and inevitable, turns it into spontaneous reflex and response.”

People Political Turns Culture Belief Natural Habit Bed Response Everyday Inevitable Spontaneous Viewpoints Political Power Reflexes

Author:Terry Eagleton

About the Author

Born: February 22, 1943
Known for: Literary critic
Quotes: 169

Related Topics

Ifs Language Humans Literature Culture Capitalism Thinking Way Literary Theory Past

Popular Topics

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Books & Sources

Literary Theory: An IntroductionRelated source material

Why Marx Was RightRelated source material

Ideology: An IntroductionRelated source material

On EvilRelated source material

Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God DebateRelated source material

How to Read LiteratureRelated source material

After TheoryRelated source material

Culture and the Death of GodRelated source material

Reason, Faith, & Revolution: Reflections on the God DebateRelated source material

The Meaning of LifeRelated source material

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