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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 Political Philosophy Self Evil Facts Humanity Ideology Kind Lacan People

Famous Terry Eagleton Quotes

“If there are indeed any iron laws of history, one of them is surely that in any major crisis of the capitalist system, a sector of the liberal middle class will shift to the left, and then shift smartly back again once the crisis has blown over.”

Ifs Law Left Class Middle Majors Crisis Middle Class Iron Capitalist Back Again

Author:Terry Eagleton

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“If history, philosophy and so on vanish from academic life, what they leave in their wake may be a technical training facility or corporate research institute. But it will not be a university in the classical sense of the term, and it would be deceptive to call it one.”

Ifs May Philosophy Would Be Term Training Research University Corporate Academic Facility Institute Deceptive Academic Life Technical Training

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Rousseau ranks among the great educational theorists of the modern era, even if he was the last man to put in charge of a classroom. Young adults, he thought, should be allowed to develop their capabilities in their distinctive way.”

Ifs Men Way Should Lasts Young Modern Adults Young Adult Educational Eras Capability Classroom Distinctive Theorists Great Educational Modern Era

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech. If you approach me at a bus stop and murmur Thou still unravished bride of quietness, then I am instantly aware that I am in the presence of the literary.”

Ifs Stills Book Literature Language Speech Approach Ordinary Everyday Bus Brides Quietness Deviate Bus Stops

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“All propaganda or popularization involves a putting of the complex into the simple, but such a move is instantly deconstructive. For if the complex can be put into the simple, then it cannot be as complex as it seemed in the first place; and if the simple can be an adequate medium of such complexity, then it cannot after all be as simple as all that.”

Ifs Firsts Moving Simple Complexes Mediums Propaganda Complexity Adequate Constructive

Author:Terry Eagleton

“In the end, it is because the media are driven by the power and wealth of private individuals that they turn private lives into public spectacles. If every private life is now potentially public property, it is because private property has undermined public responsibility.”

Ifs Ends Life Is Turns Individual Wealth Responsibility Media Property Driven Private Life Private Property Spectacles

Author:Terry Eagleton

“Cynicism and naivety lie cheek by jowl in the American imagination; if the United States is one of the most venal nations on Earth, it is also one of the most earnestly idealistic.”

Ifs States Earth Lying Nations Imagination United United States Cynicism Cheeks Idealistic Naivety

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?”

Ifs Should Whole Problem Form Culture Easy Diversity Sells Unity Range

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.”

Ifs Years Art Grows Students Arms Subtle Poetry Is Ducks Collapse Avoiding Jane Ingenious Blake Austen Milton Literary Art

Author:Terry Eagleton

About the Author

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

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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