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. 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-theoryinevitableapathy 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 birdbookideas 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 invasionoccupationpolitical Genuine equality means not treating everyone the same, but attending equally to everyone’s different needs. Terry Eagleton differentmeanneeds 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 astonishmenttoilpeople Socialism is the completion of democracy, not the negation of it. Terry Eagleton negationsocialismdemocracy 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 abhorrentslaveryunions Deconstruction insists not that truth is illusory but that it is institutional. Terry Eagleton deconstructionillusorytruth-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 intellectualtryingtwo Being brought up in a culture is a matter of learning appropriate forms of feeling as much as particular ways of thinking. Terry Eagleton feelingsculturethinking All desire springs from a lack, which it strives continually to fill. Terry Eagleton strivedesirespring 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 doemenculture 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 goalevilpeople 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 believeculturethinking 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 politicaleverydaypeople 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 fatherlyingjesus Postmodernism is among other things a sick joke at the expense of... revolutionary avant-gardism. Terry Eagleton modernismrevolutionarysick 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-stopseverydaybook 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 understandingowlnight 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 spurssocialismtasks
