English - Critic | February 22, 1943 -
The past can be used to renew the present, not just to bury it.
Terry Eagleton
PastPresentRenewUsedJustBury
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.
VisionHistoryCompassionLieValues
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.
TimeTogetherMeReadingThinkMore
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.
LearningBusinessEndPoorCost
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.
SocietyRevolutionImportantDislike
In the end, it is because the media are driven by the power and wealth of private individuals that they turn private lives into public spectacles. If every private life is now potentially public property, it is because private property has undermined public responsibility.
LifePowerResponsibilityEndMedia
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.
GoodPracticeYouMoralVirtue
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.
LifeCultureBelieveThinkFairness
God chose what is weakest in the world to shame the strong.
GodWorldStrongShameWeakest
What's wrong with a bit of nostalgia between friends? I think nostalgia sometimes gets too much of a bad press.
ThinkFriendsBadNostalgiaToo Much
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.
PeopleEvilGoalAchieveWayDeeds
Language, identity and forms of life are the terms in which political demands are shaped and voiced.
LifeIdentityLanguagePolitical
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