What I am against is false optimism: the notion either that things have to go well, or else that they tend to, or else that the default condition of historical trajectories is characteristically beneficial in the long-run. — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
If we have learned nothing else from the 20th century, we should at least have grasped that the more perfect the answer, the more terrifying its consequences. Incremental improvements upon unsatisfactory circumstances are the best that we can hope for,… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
I don't believe in an afterlife. I don't believe in a single or multiple godhead. I respect people who do, but I don't believe… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
“Markets do not automatically generate trust, cooperation or collective action for the common good. Quite the contrary: it is in the nature of economic… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
“ Lieux de memoire . . . 'exist because there are no longer any milieux de memoire , settings in which memory is a… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
“Keynes died in 1946, exhausted by his wartime efforts. But he had long since demonstrated that neither capitalism nor liberalism would survive very long… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
The Second World War had a precipitating effect in that it discredited the empires, as well as bankrupting them. Not only could you no… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
“That the state might exceed its remit and damage the market by distorting its operations was not taken very seriously in these years.” — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
“Whatever their other differences, French Gaullists, Christian Democrats and Socialists shared a common faith in the activist state, economic planning and large-scale public investment.… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
I think if I'm controversial it's not because I set out to be. It's because I've never felt comfortable being part of someone else's… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
“This reduction of 'society' to a thin membrane of interactions between private individuals is presented today as the ambition of libertarians and free marketeers.… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
“Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
We have responsibilities for others, not just across space but across time. We have responsibilities to people who came before us. They left us… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
![“Lieux de memoire . . . 'exist because there are no longer any milieux de memoire , settings in which memory is a real part of everyday experience.' And what are lieux de memoire ? [They] are . . . vestiges . . . the rituals of a ritual-less society.” quote by Tony Judt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e56/tony-judt-1730_lieux-de-memoire_lieux-de-memoire-exist-because-there-are_21586.jpg)
