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. Terry Eagleton More Quotes by Terry Eagleton More Quotes From Terry Eagleton After all, if you do not resist the apparently inevitable, you will never know how inevitable the inevitable was. Terry Eagleton literary-theory inevitable apathy Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is 'The Book of British Birds,' and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology. Terry Eagleton bird book ideas 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. Terry Eagleton invasion occupation political Genuine equality means not treating everyone the same, but attending equally to everyone’s different needs. Terry Eagleton different mean needs 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. Terry Eagleton astonishment toil people Socialism is the completion of democracy, not the negation of it. Terry Eagleton negation socialism democracy 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. Terry Eagleton abhorrent slavery unions Deconstruction insists not that truth is illusory but that it is institutional. Terry Eagleton deconstruction illusory truth-is The role of the intellectual, so it is said, is to speak truth to power. Noam Chomsky has dismissed this pious tag on two grounds. For one thing, power knows the truth already; it is just busy trying to conceal it. For another, it is not those in power who need the truth, but those they oppress. Terry Eagleton intellectual trying two Being brought up in a culture is a matter of learning appropriate forms of feeling as much as particular ways of thinking. Terry Eagleton feelings culture thinking All desire springs from a lack, which it strives continually to fill. Terry Eagleton strive desire spring Men and women do not easily submit to a power that does not weave itself into the texture of their daily existence - one reason why culture remains so politically vital. Civilisation cannot get on with culture, and it cannot get on without it. Terry Eagleton doe men culture People do evil things because they are evil. Some people are evil in the way that some things are coloured indigo. They commit their evil deeds not to achieve some goal, but just because of the sort of people they are. Terry Eagleton goal evil people A truly common culture is not one in which we all think alike, or in which we all believe that fairness is next to godliness, but one in which everyone is allowed to be in on the project of cooperatively shaping a common way of life. Terry Eagleton believe culture thinking 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. Terry Eagleton political everyday people To declare in St John's words that Jesus and the Father are one is to claim that Jesus's dependence on the Other is not self-estrangement but self-ful lment. At the core of his identity ..lies nothing but unconditional love. Terry Eagleton father lying jesus Postmodernism is among other things a sick joke at the expense of... revolutionary avant-gardism. Terry Eagleton modernism revolutionary sick 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. Terry Eagleton bus-stops everyday book Understanding is always in some sense retrospective, which is what Hegel meant by remarking that the owl of Minerva flies only at night. Terry Eagleton understanding owl night 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. Terry Eagleton spurs socialism tasks
