23 Terry Eagleton Quotes for You to Enjoy

Terry Eagleton

English Critic

Born: Feb 22, 1943

Culture Life Political Power Think You

Related authors: Aleister Crowley Charles Lamb Charlie Brooker Clive Bell John Churton Collins Pamela Hansford Johnson Walter Pater William Hazlitt

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

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. Terry Eagleton

Justice Humanity Problem Values Nation Decency Monopoly Immigrants Introducing About Fairness Nor Any British

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. Terry Eagleton

Business Learning Humanities Relation Vital Some Cost Insisting Rather Only Indispensable Like Academic Protesting How End Than Role In The End Poor Much Means Whole Defended Stressing

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

Good You Human Being Brilliant Practice Virtue Virtuous Sphere Those Moral Bores Something Trombone Takes Like Parties Call Saints Get Human Being Being Human Who Tolerating Playing Christians

Deconstruction insists not that truth is illusory but that it is institutional. Terry Eagleton

Truth Truth Is Insists Institutional Deconstruction Illusory

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. Terry Eagleton

Seen Important Revolution Society Distaste Indeed Reconstruct Anglo-Saxon Rational Attempt Abstract Bound Supposed Particularly French Principles French Revolution Source Foreigners Up Intellectuals Closely Which Dislike Prejudice Averse Basis British

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.' 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. Terry Eagleton

Politics Faith Matter Church Too Tories High Seems Anglican Rather Clearly Always Than Pat Suspect Predictable Conversion Agnostic

Today, nostalgia is almost as unacceptable as racism. Terry Eagleton

Today Racism Unacceptable Almost Nostalgia

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

Sometimes Political Crimes Secure Has-Been Brought Invasion Only Thrust Unconscious Feel Safely Occupation Been Denying Sovereignty Nations Being Them Original Usurpation Flourish Extermination

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. Terry Eagleton

Life History Training Will Sense Research Corporate Philosophy Would Would-Be Vanish Classical Facility Term Institute Academic Call Leave Wake May Deceptive Technical University

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. Terry Eagleton

History Lie Writing Vision Compassion Values Sympathy Honour Sphere Moral Above Rather Feminine His Existence Domestic Begin Than Begins Infiltrate Upper-Class Confined Being Pity Centre Social Turn Whole Associated

It is true that too much belief can be bad for your health. Terry Eagleton

Health Too Much Too Bad True Much Your Belief

The political currents that topped the global agenda in the late 20th century - revolutionary nationalism, feminism and ethnic struggle - place culture at their heart. Terry Eagleton

Struggle Heart Culture Political Feminism Nationalism Late Topped Global Revolutionary Currents Place Century Agenda Ethnic

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

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. Terry Eagleton

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

Culture Natural People Political Political Power Power Inevitable Sense Down Everyday Indeed Response Vital Habits Absolutely Spontaneous Operate Without Makes Beds Reflex Cannot Which Turns Viewpoint Appear Beliefs

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

Life Culture Believe Think Everyone Project Way Alike Shaping Allowed Fairness Truly Godliness Common Which Next

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

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. Terry Eagleton

Time Me Together Reading Think Bit Topics Astute Admire Some More He Suppose Liked Him Ideological Read Lot Very Represent Stopped Literary Interests Early Phenomenon

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