Tzvetan Todorov Quotes

إذا كانت هزيمة العدو تدفعنا إلى التصرف مثله واتباع خصائصه وصفاته الأكثر إغراقا في البشاعة فإن هذا العدو هو من سينتصر

الروايات ليست معرفة جديدة، بل قدرة جديدة على التواصل مع كائنات مختلفة عنا

igualdad es un principio inquebrantable de la tradición cristiana;

compte, que de l’extérieur : n’est respectable que la dignité qui sert le bien. Bettelheim se souvient de ces conflits entre détenus : « Lorsqu’il s’agissait de construire des bâtiments pour la Gestapo, ils discutaient pour décider s’ils devaient le faire bien. Les nouveaux venus étaient partisans du sabotage, la majorité des anciens, pour l’ouvrage bien fait » (Cœur, 270). Si le mur entoure un camp, il n’est pas bon. Un mur mal construit, dans un esprit de résistance, eût été préférable.

de sa propre expérience : le maçon Lorenzo qui lui sauve la vie à Auschwitz a préservé sa propre dignité en faisant bien le travail auquel il est contraint.

Esta gente es muy mansa y muy temerosa, desnuda como dicho tengo, sin armas y sin ley

We should not be simply fighting evil in the name of good, but struggling against the certainties of people who claim always to know where good and evil are to be found.

Further, Columbus believes not only in Christian dogma, but also (and he is not alone at the time) in Cyclopes and mermaids, in Amazons and men with tails, and his belief, as strong as Saint Peter’s, therefore permits him to find them.

When an angry mob demands the death of a female English schoolteacher alleged to have insulted the Prophet, as happened in Sudan in November 2007, the real objective was not the defence of Islam but of honour, which – it was felt – had been slighted for many long years by the Western powers. This ‘spontaneous’ use of religion was accompanied by its deliberate instrumentalization by those who are pursuing other objectives, but who prefer this disguise. Even the Crusades, as I have said, had several motives other than religious ones, but these motives were merely less easy to admit to; so they preferred to declare that Jerusalem needed to be liberated. Such a cause appears nobler; and, in addition, the appeal to cultural identity allows more powerful inner resources to be mobilized.

When the critic has said everything in his power about a literary text, he has still said nothing; for the very existence of literature implies that it cannot be replaced by non-literature

Cette attitude non héroïque a cependant un inconvénient : c’est qu’elle se prête mal aux récits ou en tous les cas aux récits de facture classique ; or la fonction narrative est indispensable dans toute société.