Tony Judt Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“Social democrats are characteristically modest - a political quality whose virtues are overestimated. We need to apologise a little less for our shortcomings and speak more assertively of achievements. That these were always incomplete should not trouble us.”

“What has gone catastrophically wrong in England and the States is that for 30 years we've lost the ability to talk about the state in positive terms. We've raised a generation or two of young people who don't think to ask, 'What can the state do that is good?'”

“I can still boss people around. I can still write. I can still read. I can still eat, and I can still have very strong views.”

“I don't believe that one should have one-size-fits-all moral rules for international political action.”

“It does irritate me when I am described as a controversialist and commentator on Israel.”

“We are not merely historians but also and always citizens.”

“American social arrangements, economic arrangements, the degree of inequality in American life, the relatively small role played by the government in American public life and so forth, compares to exactly the opposite conditions in most of the European societies.”

“Popularizing - much less venturing beyond one's secure turf - was frowned upon for many years. I think I probably internalized the prohibition, even though I was - and knew I was - among the best speakers and writers of my age cohort. I don't mean I was the best historian - a quite different measure.”

“I don't want to be the passively alert vegetable in the corner that takes in everything but can't communicate, which I think would suck a lot of life out of my family without giving very much to me.”

“In the grip of a neurological disorder, I am fast losing control of words even as my relationship with the world has been reduced to them.”