Alain Badiou Quotes

About what one can not speak, one must remain silent.

I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes.

We need words to name and designate things. But we have only a static language with which to express ourselves.

He gave man speech, and speech created thought, Which is the measure of the universe.

Analytical philosophy was very interesting. It always struck me as being very interesting and full of tremendous intellectual curiosities. It is wonderful to see the mind at work in such an intense manner, but, for me, it was still too far removed from my own issues.

The freedom to speak is meaningless without the corollary freedom to keep silent.

I perceive a necessary gap between seeing and being. I would not be able to have said certain things if I had been under the obligation to unify the word and the deed. As it is I can let my words reach out and net impossible things - things that are impossible for me to do. And this is a way to pay the price for saying or seeing things.

No metaphysician ever felt the deficiency of language so much as the grateful.

Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care.

If you are not able to be silent, you will not be able to speak well.

If writing has taught me anything, it's that you don't actually understand anything until you can express it in words.

Rembrandt is so deeply mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language.

The violence of language consists in its effort to capture the ineffable and, hence, to destroy it, to seize hold of that which must remain elusive for language to operate as a living thing.

Words are not the end of thought, they are where it begins.

What should we gain by a definition, as it can only lead us to other undefined terms?

Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not feel.

Philosophy is the rational expression of genius.

Different ‘philosophies’ represent nothing but methods of evaluation, which may lead to empirical mis-evaluation if science and empirical facts are disregarded.

Writing cannot express all words, words cannot encompass all ideas.

Thought is not merely expressed in words, it comes into existence through them

Words are the only arteries of thought our poor human body possesses.

What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

I have the right of education. I have the right to play. I have the right to sing. I have the right to talk. I have the right to go to market. I have the right to speak up.

The need to speak, even if one has nothing to say, becomes more pressing when one has nothing to say, just as the will to live becomes more urgent when life has lost its meaning.

Both love and democracy depend on voice -- having a voice and also the resonance that makes it possible to speak and be heard.