Terry Eagleton Quotes & Sayings (Page 5)

“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.”

“Irish fiction is full of secrets, guilty pasts, divided identities. It is no wonder that there is such a rich tradition of Gothic writing in a nation so haunted by history.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I attacked Dawkins's book on God because I think he is theologically illiterate.”

“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.”

“Anyone can be tolerant of those who are tolerant.”

“You've got to have a sense of different audiences. I'm a kind of performer manque - I come from a long line of failed actors!”

“Americans use the word 'dream' as often as psychoanalysts do.”

“I value my Catholic background very much. It taught me not to be afraid of rigorous thought, for one thing.”