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Terry Eagleton Quotes

Terry Eagleton quotes

English Critic February 22, 1943

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Quotes

An enlightened trust in the sovereignty of human reason can be every bit as magical as the exploits of Merlin, and a faith in our capacity for limitless self-improvement just as much a wide-eyed superstition as a faith in leprechauns. Terry Eagleton
Modern poets like Frost still want to make 'deep' statements; but they are also more sceptical of such high-sounding generalities than many of their forebears. So, rather like T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, they gesture enigmatically to such profundities while at the same time being nervous of committing themselves to them. Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton quote: "In the deep night of metaphysics, all cats look black."
In the deep night of metaphysics, all cats look black. Terry Eagleton
it is most certainly Christianity itself which is primarily responsible for the intellectual sloppiness of its critics. Apart from the single instance of Stalinism, it is hard to think of a historical movement that has more squalidly betrayed its own revolutionary origins...For the most part, it has become the creed of the suburban well-to-do, not the astonishing promise offered to the riffraff and undercover anti-colonial militants with whom Jesus himself hung out...This brand of piety is... Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton quote: "Nature is a bottom-line concept."
Nature is a bottom-line concept. Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton quote: "[God] is a kind of perpetual critique of instrumental reason."
[God] is a kind of perpetual critique of instrumental reason. Terry Eagleton
Might not too much investment in teaching Shelley mean falling behind our economic competitors? But there is no university without humane inquiry, which means that universities and advanced capitalism are fundamentally incompatible. And the political implications of that run far deeper than the question of student fees. Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton quote: "[A] great deal of what we believe we do not know firsthand;..."
[A] great deal of what we believe we do not know firsthand; instead we have faith in the knowledge of specialists. Terry Eagleton
Negativity is often looked upon [in the USA] as a kind of thought crime. Not since the advent of socialist realism has the world witnessed such pathological upbeatness. Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton quote: "Being brought up in a culture is a matter of learning..."
Being brought up in a culture is a matter of learning appropriate forms of feeling as much as particular ways of thinking. Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton quote: "Literary' feelings are responses to poems, not just states of..."
Literary' feelings are responses to poems, not just states of emotion which occur in their presence. Terry Eagleton
Because subjects like literature and art history have no obvious material pay-off, they tend to attract those who look askance at capitalist notions of utility. The idea of doing something purely for the delight of it has always rattled the grey-bearded guardians of the state. Sheer pointlessness has always been a deeply subversive affair Terry Eagleton
The Kantian imperative to have the courage to think for oneself has involved a contemptuous disregard for the resources of tradition and an infantile view of authority as inherently oppressive. Terry Eagleton
The liberal state has no view on whether witchcraft is more valuable than all-in wrestling. Like a tactful publican, it has as few opinions as possible. Many liberals suspect passionate convictions are latently authoritarian. But liberalism should surely be a passionate conviction. Liberals are not necessarily lukewarm. Only the more macho leftist suspects that they have no balls. You can be ardently neutral, and fiercely indifferent. 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.... Terry Eagleton

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