Any attempt to define literary theory in terms of a distinctive method is doomed to failure. Terry Eagleton More Quotes by Terry Eagleton More Quotes From 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. Terry Eagleton diversityachievementcivilization All consciousness is consciousness of something: in thinking I am aware that my thought is 'pointing towards' some object. Terry Eagleton my-thoughtsconsciousnessthinking We face a conflict between civilisation and culture, which used to be on the same side. Civilisation means rational reflection, material wellbeing, individual autonomy and ironic self-doubt; culture means a form of life that is customary, collective, passionate, spontaneous, unreflective and arational. Terry Eagleton reflectionselfmean Evil is unintelligible. It is just a thing in itself, like boarding a crowded commuter train wearing only a giant boa constrictor. There is no context which would make it explicable. Terry Eagleton giantseviltrain One side-effect of the so-called war on terror has been a crisis of liberalism. This is not only a question of alarmingly illiberal legislation, but a more general problem of how the liberal state deals with its anti-liberal enemies. Terry Eagleton sideswarenemy 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. Terry Eagleton hangoveruprisinglevels There is no way in which we can retrospectively erase the Treaty of Vienna or the Great Irish Famine. It is a peculiar feature of human actions that, once performed, they can never be recuperated. What is true of the past will always be true of it. Terry Eagleton viennapeculiarpast Ivory towers are as rare as bowling alleys in tribal cultures. Terry Eagleton ivory-towertowersculture Virtue is something you have to get good at, like playing the trombone or tolerating bores at parties. Being a virtuous human being takes practice; and those who are brilliant at being human (what Christians call the saints) are the virtuosi of the moral sphere - the Pavarottis and Maradonas of virtue. Terry Eagleton partypracticechristian 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. Terry Eagleton viewpointsformpast If we were not called upon to work in order to survive, we might simply lie around all day doing nothing. Terry Eagleton mightorderlying Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech. Terry Eagleton everydayliteratureordinary Anyone can be tolerant of those who are tolerant. Terry Eagleton Evil may be 'unscientific' but so is a song or a smile. Terry Eagleton evilmaysong Theology, however implausible many of its truth claims, is one of the most ambitious theoretical arenas left in an increasingly specialized world Terry Eagleton arenaambitiousworld 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. Terry Eagleton confirmationbecomingtheory There seems to be something in humanity which will not bow meekly to the insolence of power. Terry Eagleton insolencebowshumanity The truth is that the past exists no more than the future, even though it feels as though it does. Terry Eagleton truth-isdoepast It is important to see that, in the critique of ideology, only those interventions will work which make sense to the mystified subject itself. Terry Eagleton make-senseimportantideology For Aristotle, goodness is a kind of prospering in the precarious affair of being human. Terry Eagleton affairbeing-humankind
