Terry Eagleton Quotes

In the mythic schema of all relations between men and women, man proposes, and woman is disposed of.

Power is not just political. It can be cultural; it can be spiritual.

Society receives its momentum from power.

Institutions are more powerful than men.

Was there ever any domination which did not appear natural to those who possessed it?

I don't think you can impose a social order from the top down.

The most powerful men were those who most effectively used the power of adult competence to enforce childish agreements.

Inasmuch as society cannot go on without discipline of some kind, men were constrained, in the absence of any other form of discipline, to turn to discipline of the military type.

From the viewpoint of political power, culture is absolutely vital. So vital, indeed, that power cannot operate without it. It is culture, in the sense of the everyday habits and beliefs of a people, which beds power down, makes it appear natural and inevitable, turns it into spontaneous reflex and response.

Social conservatives say who drives the bus.

In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating.

Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.

The public power of all society is above every soul contained in the same society.

It is not possible to assume that a world carried on by division of labor and authority, can be governed by universal opinions in the whole population.

The only power that females have is given to them by males. The only thing which females do with that power is use it against males.

About 10,000 years ago, the winners of wars began incorporating the losers into larger societies. The victors found that the only way to make these larger societies work was by developing stronger governments; and one of the first things these governments had to do, if they wanted to stay in power, was suppress violence among their subjects.

Misogyny should be understood as the ‘law enforcement’ branch of a patriarchal order, which has the overall function of policing and enforcing its governing ideology. Sexism wears a lab coat, misogyny goes on witch hunts.... Sexism is bookish; misogyny is combative. Sexism has a theory; misogyny wields a cudgel.

I think being a scientist is a position of respect and power and access, and it's a privileged position in society. And I think there are fundamental mechanisms that keep men and women from achieving the same level of power and access and privilege in society.

Influence is not government.

A portion of the multitude must ever be coerced.

Men submit from habit to everything that seeks power.

Might does not make right but it sure makes what is.

religion and morality are a much better whip to keep people in submission than even the club and the gun.

In the 21st century, culture is power.

When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.