--- title: "10 Michel Foucault Quotes by 10 authors" description: "Browse 10 Michel Foucault quotes by 10 authors. Discover the best Michel Foucault sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13b/camille-paglia-652_american_it-s-time-for-a-recovery-and-reassessmen_797883.png" --- > [It's time for a recovery and reassessment of North American thinkers. Marshall McLuhan, Leslie Fiedler and Norman O. Brown are the linked…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/camille-paglia/it-s-time-for-a-recovery-and-reassessment-of-north-american-thinkers/) [Camille Paglia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/camille-paglia/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13b/camille-paglia-652_american_it-s-time-for-a-recovery-and-reassessmen_797883.png) > [Jacques Derrida is a very important thinker and philosopher who has made serious contributions to both philosophy and literary criticism. Roland Barthes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeffrey-eugenides/jacques-derrida-is-a-very-important-thinker-and-philosopher-who-has/) [Jeffrey Eugenides](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeffrey-eugenides/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ea3/jeffrey-eugenides-462_affinity_jacques-derrida-is-a-very-important-thin_3147465.jpg) > [“...confession is believed to reveal the deep truths of who people are (...) Michel Foucault once wrote that we live in a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rich-villodas/confession-is-believed-to-reveal-the-deep-truths-of-who-people-are/) Rich Villodas [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e70/rich-villodas-272479_absolution_confession-is-believed-to-reveal-the-dee_2346493.jpg) > [Sometimes I think you just have to trust that the things you're doing make sense, instead of sitting down and analyzing this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-mastrangelo/sometimes-i-think-you-just-have-to-trust-that-the-things-you-re-doing/) [Fernando Mastrangelo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-mastrangelo/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b1a/fernando-mastrangelo-45630_doing-the-right-thin_sometimes-i-think-you-just-have-to-trust_3076022.jpg) > [“This left, which strangely echoes a libertarian and even neoliberal ethic of ant-statism, is nurtured intellectually by thinkers such as Michel Foucault…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-harvey/this-left-which-strangely-echoes-a-libertarian-and-even-neoliberal/) [David Harvey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-harvey/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/835/david-harvey-10654_change-the-world_this-left-which-strangely-echoes-a-liber_612629.jpg) > [“With Derrida, you can hardly misread him, because he’s so obscure. Every time you say, "He says so and so," he always…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-r-searle/with-derrida-you-can-hardly-misread-him-because-he-s-so-obscure-every/) John R. Searle [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75b/john-r-searle-82459_derrida_with-derrida-you-can-hardly-misread-him_2550256.jpg) > [“What has become of critique when someone as eminent as Stanley Fish, the “enemy of promises” as Lindsay Waters calls him, believes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bruno-latour/what-has-become-of-critique-when-someone-as-eminent-as-stanley-fish/) [Bruno Latour](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bruno-latour/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ff/bruno-latour-21082_critique_what-has-become-of-critique-when-someone_410165.png) > [“MEDICATION IS AN incredibly attractive concept. Not just for the person with depression, or the person running a pharmaceutical firm, but for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-haig/medication-is-an-incredibly-attractive-concept-not-just-for-the/) [Matt Haig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-haig/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df4/matt-haig-1036_depression_medication-is-an-incredibly-attractive-c_1808074.jpg) > [“What is happening in Egypt now, and in the countries of the Arab Spring, confirms a global phenomenon that the human became…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohamed-addakhakhny/what-is-happening-in-egypt-now-and-in-the-countries-of-the-arab/) Mohamed Addakhakhny [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca3/mohamed-addakhakhny-84177_arab-spring_what-is-happening-in-egypt-now-and-in-th_2017094.jpg) > [“School of Resentment is a term coined by critic Harold Bloom to describe related schools of literary criticism which have gained prominence…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/harold-bloom/school-of-resentment-is-a-term-coined-by-critic-harold-bloom-to/) [Harold Bloom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/harold-bloom/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a47/harold-bloom-3350_african-american_school-of-resentment-is-a-term-coined-by_2033701.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/michel-foucault/#itemlist", "name": "Michel Foucault Quotes", "numberOfItems": 10, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "It's time for a recovery and reassessment of North American thinkers. Marshall McLuhan, Leslie Fiedler and Norman O. Brown are the linked triad I would substitute for Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, whose work belongs to ravaged postwar Europe and whose ideas transfer poorly into the Anglo-American tradition.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Camille Paglia" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/camille-paglia/it-s-time-for-a-recovery-and-reassessment-of-north-american-thinkers/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13b/camille-paglia-652_american_it-s-time-for-a-recovery-and-reassessmen_797883.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13b/camille-paglia-652_american_it-s-time-for-a-recovery-and-reassessmen_797883.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13b/camille-paglia-652_american_it-s-time-for-a-recovery-and-reassessmen_797883.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It's time for a recovery and reassessment of North American thinkers. Marshall McLuhan, Leslie Fiedler and…” — Camille Paglia", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Jacques Derrida is a very important thinker and philosopher who has made serious contributions to both philosophy and literary criticism. Roland Barthes is the one I feel most affinity for, and Michel Foucault, well, his writing influenced my novel, 'Middlesex.'", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jeffrey Eugenides" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeffrey-eugenides/jacques-derrida-is-a-very-important-thinker-and-philosopher-who-has/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ea3/jeffrey-eugenides-462_affinity_jacques-derrida-is-a-very-important-thin_3147465.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ea3/jeffrey-eugenides-462_affinity_jacques-derrida-is-a-very-important-thin_3147465.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ea3/jeffrey-eugenides-462_affinity_jacques-derrida-is-a-very-important-thin_3147465.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Jacques Derrida is a very important thinker and philosopher who has made serious contributions to both…” — Jeffrey Eugenides", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“...confession is believed to reveal the deep truths of who people are (...) Michel Foucault once wrote that we live in a \"confessional society.\" (...) But confessions were not originally about fact-finding, nor were they meant to entertain. Confession began as a search for absolution.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rich Villodas" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rich-villodas/confession-is-believed-to-reveal-the-deep-truths-of-who-people-are/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e70/rich-villodas-272479_absolution_confession-is-believed-to-reveal-the-dee_2346493.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e70/rich-villodas-272479_absolution_confession-is-believed-to-reveal-the-dee_2346493.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e70/rich-villodas-272479_absolution_confession-is-believed-to-reveal-the-dee_2346493.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“...confession is believed to reveal the deep truths of who people are (...) Michel Foucault once wrote that…” — Rich Villodas", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Sometimes I think you just have to trust that the things you're doing make sense, instead of sitting down and analyzing this and that and, \"Well, I read Paul-Michel Foucault saying...\" The world and the universe have a way of resolving themselves eloquently, I think, if you're doing the right things.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Fernando Mastrangelo" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-mastrangelo/sometimes-i-think-you-just-have-to-trust-that-the-things-you-re-doing/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b1a/fernando-mastrangelo-45630_doing-the-right-thin_sometimes-i-think-you-just-have-to-trust_3076022.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b1a/fernando-mastrangelo-45630_doing-the-right-thin_sometimes-i-think-you-just-have-to-trust_3076022.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b1a/fernando-mastrangelo-45630_doing-the-right-thin_sometimes-i-think-you-just-have-to-trust_3076022.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Sometimes I think you just have to trust that the things you're doing make sense, instead of sitting down…” — Fernando Mastrangelo", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“This left, which strangely echoes a libertarian and even neoliberal ethic of ant-statism, is nurtured intellectually by thinkers such as Michel Foucault and all those who have reassembled postmodern fragmentations under the banner of a largely incomprehensible post-structuralism that favours identity politicsand eschews class analysis. Autonomist, anarchist, and localist perspectives and actions are everywhere in evidence. But to the degree that this left seeks to change the world without taking power, so an increasingly consolidated plutocratic capitalist class remains unchallenged in its ability to dominate the world without constraint. This new ruling class is aided by a security and surveillance state that is by no means loath to use its police powers to quell all forms of dissent in the name of anti-terrorism.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "David Harvey" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-harvey/this-left-which-strangely-echoes-a-libertarian-and-even-neoliberal/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/835/david-harvey-10654_change-the-world_this-left-which-strangely-echoes-a-liber_612629.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/835/david-harvey-10654_change-the-world_this-left-which-strangely-echoes-a-liber_612629.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/835/david-harvey-10654_change-the-world_this-left-which-strangely-echoes-a-liber_612629.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“This left, which strangely echoes a libertarian and even neoliberal ethic of ant-statism, is nurtured…” — David Harvey", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“With Derrida, you can hardly misread him, because he’s so obscure. Every time you say, \"He says so and so,\" he always says, \"You misunderstood me.\" But if you try to figure out the correct interpretation, then that’s not so easy. I once said this to Michel Foucault, who was more hostile to Derrida even than I am, and Foucault said that Derrida practiced the method of obscurantisme terroriste (terrorism of obscurantism). We were speaking French. And I said, \"What the hell do you mean by that?\" And he said, \"He writes so obscurely you can’t tell what he’s saying, that’s the obscurantism part, and then when you criticize him, he can always say, 'You didn’t understand me; you’re an idiot.' That’s the terrorism part.\" And I like that. So I wrote an article about Derrida. I asked Michel if it was OK if I quoted that passage, and he said yes.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "John R. Searle" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-r-searle/with-derrida-you-can-hardly-misread-him-because-he-s-so-obscure-every/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75b/john-r-searle-82459_derrida_with-derrida-you-can-hardly-misread-him_2550256.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75b/john-r-searle-82459_derrida_with-derrida-you-can-hardly-misread-him_2550256.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75b/john-r-searle-82459_derrida_with-derrida-you-can-hardly-misread-him_2550256.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“With Derrida, you can hardly misread him, because he’s so obscure. Every time you say, \"He says so and so,\"…” — John R. Searle", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“What has become of critique when someone as eminent as Stanley Fish, the “enemy of promises” as Lindsay Waters calls him, believes he defends science studies, my field, by comparing the laws of physics to the rules of baseball? What has become of critique when there is a whole industry denying that the Apollo program landed on the moon? What has become of critique when DARPA uses for its Total Information Awareness project the Baconian slogan Scientia est potentia? Didn’t I read that somewhere in Michel Foucault? Has knowledge-slash-power been co-opted of late by the National Security Agency? Has Discipline and Punish become the bedtime reading of Mr. Ridge?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Bruno Latour" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bruno-latour/what-has-become-of-critique-when-someone-as-eminent-as-stanley-fish/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ff/bruno-latour-21082_critique_what-has-become-of-critique-when-someone_410165.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ff/bruno-latour-21082_critique_what-has-become-of-critique-when-someone_410165.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1ff/bruno-latour-21082_critique_what-has-become-of-critique-when-someone_410165.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What has become of critique when someone as eminent as Stanley Fish, the “enemy of promises” as Lindsay…” — Bruno Latour", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“MEDICATION IS AN incredibly attractive concept. Not just for the person with depression, or the person running a pharmaceutical firm, but for society as a whole. It underlines the idea we have hammered into us by the hundred thousand TV ads we have seen that everything can be fixed by consuming things. It fosters a just-shut-up-and-take-the-pill approach, and creates an “us” and “them” divide, where everyone can relax and feel “unreason”—to borrow Michel Foucault’s favorite word—is being safely neutered in a society that demands we be normal even as it drives us insane.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Matt Haig" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-haig/medication-is-an-incredibly-attractive-concept-not-just-for-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df4/matt-haig-1036_depression_medication-is-an-incredibly-attractive-c_1808074.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df4/matt-haig-1036_depression_medication-is-an-incredibly-attractive-c_1808074.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df4/matt-haig-1036_depression_medication-is-an-incredibly-attractive-c_1808074.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“MEDICATION IS AN incredibly attractive concept. Not just for the person with depression, or the person…” — Matt Haig", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“What is happening in Egypt now, and in the countries of the Arab Spring, confirms a global phenomenon that the human became in the service of things, but while he is in the service of multinational companies, media, and political parties in some countries, he is in the service of the state, political alliances, military, political movements, armed militias.. and so on, in the Arab countries. Which may confirm - with much of regret - the words of Michel Foucault that \"Modernity has evolved against its essence\" and \"this world began without human and will end without him\"!”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mohamed Addakhakhny" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohamed-addakhakhny/what-is-happening-in-egypt-now-and-in-the-countries-of-the-arab/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca3/mohamed-addakhakhny-84177_arab-spring_what-is-happening-in-egypt-now-and-in-th_2017094.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca3/mohamed-addakhakhny-84177_arab-spring_what-is-happening-in-egypt-now-and-in-th_2017094.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca3/mohamed-addakhakhny-84177_arab-spring_what-is-happening-in-egypt-now-and-in-th_2017094.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What is happening in Egypt now, and in the countries of the Arab Spring, confirms a global phenomenon that…” — Mohamed Addakhakhny", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“School of Resentment is a term coined by critic Harold Bloom to describe related schools of literary criticism which have gained prominence in academia since the 1970s and which Bloom contends are preoccupied with political and social activism at the expense of aesthetic values.[1] Broadly, Bloom terms \"Schools of Resentment\" approaches associated with Marxist critical theory, including African American studies, Marxist literary criticism, New Historicist criticism, feminist criticism, and poststructuralism—specifically as promoted by Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. The School of Resentment is usually defined as all scholars who wish to enlarge the Western canon by adding to it more works by authors from minority groups without regard to aesthetic merit and/or influence over time, or those who argue that some works commonly thought canonical promote sexist, racist or otherwise biased values and should therefore be removed from the canon. Bloom contends that the School of Resentment threatens the nature of the canon itself and may lead to its eventual demise. Philosopher Richard Rorty[2] agreed that Bloom is at least partly accurate in describing the School of Resentment, writing that those identified by Bloom do in fact routinely use \"subversive, oppositional discourse\" to attack the canon specifically and Western culture in general.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Harold Bloom" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/harold-bloom/school-of-resentment-is-a-term-coined-by-critic-harold-bloom-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a47/harold-bloom-3350_african-american_school-of-resentment-is-a-term-coined-by_2033701.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a47/harold-bloom-3350_african-american_school-of-resentment-is-a-term-coined-by_2033701.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a47/harold-bloom-3350_african-american_school-of-resentment-is-a-term-coined-by_2033701.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“School of Resentment is a term coined by critic Harold Bloom to describe related schools of literary…” — Harold Bloom", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/michel-foucault/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/michel-foucault/", "name": "Michel Foucault Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/michel-foucault/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13b/camille-paglia-652_american_it-s-time-for-a-recovery-and-reassessmen_797883.png" }, "description": "Browse 10 Michel Foucault quotes by 10 authors. 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