“Dawkins considers that all faith is blind faith, and that Christian and Muslim children are brought up to believe unquestioningly. Not even the dim-witted clerics who knocked me about at grammar school thought that.” BelieveChildrenSchoolChristianBlindGrammarBlind FaithGrammar School Author:Terry Eagleton
“For the liberal state to accommodate a diversity of beliefs while having few positive convictions is one of the more admirable achievements of civilization.” StatesBeliefCivilizationAchievementDiversityConvictionAdmirableAccommodate Author:Terry Eagleton
“I enjoy popularisation and I think I'm reasonably good at it. I also think it's a duty. It's just so pedagogically stupid to forget how difficult one found these ideas oneself to begin with.” ThinkingIdeasFoundEnjoyDifficultForgetStupidDutyOneself Author:Terry Eagleton
“I liked early Amis a lot, but I stopped reading him some time ago. I admire Hitchens on literary topics - I think he is very astute. McEwan, I read a bit. But I suppose it's more the ideological phenomenon that they represent together that interests me.” ThinkingTogetherReadingBitsInterestAdmirePhenomenonTopicsIdeologicalAstute Author:Terry Eagleton
“In the end, the humanities can only be defended by stressing how indispensable they are; and this means insisting on their vital role in the whole business of academic learning, rather than protesting that, like some poor relation, they don't cost much to be housed.” MeanEndsWholeHumanityPoorRolesCostStressRelationAcademicIndispensableInsisting Author:Terry Eagleton
“Irish fiction is full of secrets, guilty pasts, divided identities. It is no wonder that there is such a rich tradition of Gothic writing in a nation so haunted by history.” WritingPastNationsSecretFictionWonderRichIdentityTraditionGuiltyDividedGothic Author:Terry Eagleton
“It is easy to see why a diversity of cultures should confront power with a problem. If culture is about plurality, power is about unity. How can it sell itself simultaneously to a whole range of life forms without being fatally diluted?” IfsShouldWholeProblemFormCultureEasyDiversitySellsUnityRange Author:Terry Eagleton
“It is in Rousseau's writing above all that history begins to turn from upper-class honour to middle-class humanitarianism. Pity, sympathy and compassion lie at the centre of his moral vision. Values associated with the feminine begin to infiltrate social existence as a whole, rather than being confined to the domestic sphere.” WritingWholeLyingValuesTurnsSocialExistenceCompassionMoralVisionClassMiddlePityMiddle ClassFeminineHonourSympathySpheresCentreHumanitarianismConfinedUpper Class Author:Terry Eagleton
“It is true that some liberals and humanists, along with the laid-back Danes, deny the existence of evil. This is largely because they regard the word 'evil' as a device for demonising those who are really nothing more than socially unfortunate.” EvilExistenceRegardDenyDevicesUnfortunateLaid Back Author:Terry Eagleton
“Most students of literature can pick apart a metaphor or spot an ethnic stereotype, but not many of them can say things like: 'The poem's sardonic tone is curiously at odds with its plodding syntax.” LiteratureStudentsPicksMetaphorSpotsToneOddsStereotypeSyntaxSardonicEthnic Stereotypes Author:Terry Eagleton
“Nations sometimes flourish by denying the crimes that brought them into being. Only when the original invasion, occupation, extermination or usurpation has been safely thrust into the political unconscious can sovereignty feel secure.” FeelsHas BeensSometimesPoliticalNationsCrimeOriginalsSecureUnconsciousOccupationSovereigntyInvasionThrustExterminationUsurpation Author:Terry Eagleton
“Poetry is the most subtle of the literary arts, and students grow more ingenious by the year at avoiding it. If they can nip around Milton, duck under Blake and collapse gratefully into the arms of Jane Austen, a lot of them will.” IfsYearsArtGrowsStudentsArmsSubtlePoetry IsDucksCollapseAvoidingJaneIngeniousBlakeAustenMiltonLiterary Art Author:Terry Eagleton
“The British are supposed to be particularly averse to intellectuals, a prejudice closely bound up with their dislike of foreigners. Indeed, one important source of this Anglo-Saxon distaste for highbrows and eggheads was the French revolution, which was seen as an attempt to reconstruct society on the basis of abstract rational principles.” ImportantPrinciplesSourceRevolutionBasesPrejudiceBoundsBritishRationalSupposed To BeAbstractDislikeForeignersFrench RevolutionDistasteAnglo SaxonEggheads Author:Terry Eagleton
“The conversion of agnostic High Tories to the Anglican church is always rather suspect. It seems too pat and predictable, too clearly a matter of politics rather than faith.” MatterSeemsChurchConversionSuspectsAgnosticPredictable Author:Terry Eagleton
“The German philosopher Walter Benjamin had the curious notion that we could change the past. For most of us, the past is fixed while the future is open.” PastNotionPhilosopherCuriousFixedGerman Philosopher Author:Terry Eagleton
“The political currents that topped the global agenda in the late 20th century - revolutionary nationalism, feminism and ethnic struggle - place culture at their heart.” HeartPoliticalCultureStruggleFeminismCenturyLateCurrentsRevolutionaryNationalismAgendas20th Century Author:Terry Eagleton
“The study of history and philosophy, accompanied by some acquaintance with art and literature, should be for lawyers and engineers as well as for those who study in arts faculties.” ShouldWellsArtPhilosophyLiteratureStudyLawyerFacultyEngineersAcquaintance Author:Terry Eagleton
“There is an insuperable problem about introducing immigrants to British values. There are no British values. Nor are there any Serbian or Peruvian values. No nation has a monopoly on fairness and decency, justice and humanity.” ProblemValuesHumanityNationsJusticeBritishImmigrantsIntroducingFairnessMonopolyDecencyPeruvians Author:Terry Eagleton
“With fiction, you can talk about plot, character and narrative, whereas a poem brings home the fact that everything that happens in a work of literature happens in terms of language. And this is daunting stuff to deal with.” CharacterFactsHomeHappensLiteratureLanguageStuffTermDealsFictionNarrativePlot Author:Terry Eagleton
