--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: If I open a book and see that the author…" description: "\"If I open a book and see that the author is accusing an adversary of \"infantile leftism\" I shut it again right away. That's not my way of doing things;..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e80/michel-foucault-1134_accusing_if-i-open-a-book-and-see-that-the-author_3009766.jpg" --- # If I open a book and see that the author is accusing an… ![“If I open a book and see that the author is accusing an adversary of "infantile leftism" I shut it again right away. That's not my way of doing things; I don't belong to the world of people who do things that way. I insist on this difference as something essential: a whole morality is at stake…” quote by Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e80/michel-foucault-1134_accusing_if-i-open-a-book-and-see-that-the-author_3009766.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e80/michel-foucault-1134_accusing_if-i-open-a-book-and-see-that-the-author_3009766.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e80/michel-foucault-1134_accusing_if-i-open-a-book-and-see-that-the-author_3009766.jpg) > “If I open a book and see that the author is accusing an adversary of "infantile leftism" I shut it again right away. That's not my way of doing things; I don't belong to the world of people who do things that way. I insist on this difference as something essential: a whole morality is at stake; the one that concerns the search for truth and the relation to the other.” [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The author rejects a simplistic, politicized critique, insisting on a deeper moral stance about truth and otherness. **In simple terms:** I avoid shallow political labels. Key Takeaway Seek nuanced truth. Themes truth morality otherness politics Mood critical thoughtful Type philosophical analytical When to use this quote - academic reading - political debate - media analysis - ethical discussions Key Concepts critical theory ethical philosophy Questions to Reflect On - How do you discern genuine moral concerns? - What role does language play in truth‑seeking? A Different Perspective May overlook legitimate critiques. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Adversaries](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/adversaries/) [Book](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/book/) [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Differences](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/differences/) [Morality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/morality/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Search for truth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/search-for-truth/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) ## Related quotes > [We find few historians who have been diligent enough in their search for truth; it is their common method to take on trust what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dryden/we-find-few-historians-who-have-been-diligent-enough-in-their-search/) [John Dryden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dryden/) > [As for the search for truth, I know from my own painful searching, with its many blind alleys, how hard it is to take…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-einstein/as-for-the-search-for-truth-i-know-from-my-own-painful-searching-with/) [Albert Einstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-einstein/) > [In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 1948) in most solemn form, the dignity of a person is acknowledged to all human beings;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pope-john-xxiii/in-the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights-december-1948-in-most/) [Pope John XXIII](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pope-john-xxiii/) > [Acting is an everlasting search for truth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laurence-olivier/acting-is-an-everlasting-search-for-truth/) [Laurence Olivier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laurence-olivier/) > [“A successful search for Truth means complete deliverance from the dual throng such as of love and hate, happiness and misery.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/a-successful-search-for-truth-means-complete-deliverance-from-the/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Before anything else, we need a new age of Enlightenment. Our present political systems must relinquish their claims on truth, justice and freedom and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-d-rrenmatt/before-anything-else-we-need-a-new-age-of-enlightenment-our-present/) [Friedrich Durrenmatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-d-rrenmatt/) > [“Isn't it strange how people are selective about the truth the want to see or hear?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-a-bucchianeri/isn-t-it-strange-how-people-are-selective-about-the-truth-the-want-to/) [E.A. Bucchianeri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-a-bucchianeri/) > [A society committed to the search for truth must give protection to, and set a high value upon, the independent and original mind, however…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/caryl-parker-haskins/a-society-committed-to-the-search-for-truth-must-give-protection-to/) Caryl Parker Haskins > [Science is the search for truth, that is the effort to understand the world: it involves the rejection of bias, of dogma, of revelation,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/linus-pauling/science-is-the-search-for-truth-that-is-the-effort-to-understand-the/) [Linus Pauling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/linus-pauling/) > [Talking with most people usually involves a search for truth. Talking with congressmen is strictly special effects.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-mcdevitt/talking-with-most-people-usually-involves-a-search-for-truth-talking/) [Jack McDevitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-mcdevitt/) > [I think I have fairly heard and fairly weighed the evidence on both sides, and I remain an utter disbeliever in almost all that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-russel-wallace/i-think-i-have-fairly-heard-and-fairly-weighed-the-evidence-on-both/) [Alfred Russel Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-russel-wallace/) > [“So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer?…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yann-martel/so-tell-me-since-it-makes-no-factual-difference-to-you-and-you-can-t/) [Yann Martel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yann-martel/) > [The paleontological evidence before us today clearly demonstrates ordered progressive change with the successive development of new faunal and floral assemblages through the changing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-phillips/the-paleontological-evidence-before-us-today-clearly-demonstrates/) [Wendell Phillips](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-phillips/) > [The search for truth is a cooperative, unending endeavor. We can, and should, engage in it to the extent we can and encourage others…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/the-search-for-truth-is-a-cooperative-unending-endeavor-we-can-and/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [It is the misanthrope who alone has clarity.By standing outside the huddles of man,he sees a lot,and what he often sees is the evidence…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/manu-joseph/it-is-the-misanthrope-who-alone-has-clarity-by-standing-outside-the/) [Manu Joseph](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/manu-joseph/) ## More by Michel Foucault > [One should try to locate power at the extreme of its exercise, where it is always less legal in character.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/one-should-try-to-locate-power-at-the-extreme-of-its-exercise-where/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [The book is not simply the object that one holds in one's hands, and it cannot remain within the little parallelpiped that contains it:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/the-book-is-not-simply-the-object-that-one-holds-in-one-s-hands-and/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“But a punishment like forced labour or even imprisonment – mere loss of liberty – has never functioned without a certain additional element of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/but-a-punishment-like-forced-labour-or-even-imprisonment-mere-loss-of/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [Death left its old tragic heaven and became the lyrical core of man: his invisible truth, his visible secret.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/death-left-its-old-tragic-heaven-and-became-the-lyrical-core-of-man/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [I'm no prophet. My job is making windows where there were once walls.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/i-m-no-prophet-my-job-is-making-windows-where-there-were-once-walls/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [Let us ask... how things work at the level of on-going subjugation, at the level of those continuous and uninterrupted processes which subject our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level-of-on-going-subjugation-at/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the fact that it doesn't only weigh on us as a force that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/what-makes-power-hold-good-what-makes-it-accepted-is-simply-the-fact/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“It was a matter of showing by what conjunctions a whole set of practices-- from the moment they became coordinated with a regime of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/it-was-a-matter-of-showing-by-what-conjunctions-a-whole-set-of/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“The preferred medications were those that forestalled corruption. We know 'as a result of more than three thousand years of experience that Myrrh and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/the-preferred-medications-were-those-that-forestalled-corruption-we/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“The man described for us, whom we are invited to free, is already in himself the effect of a subjection much more profound than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/the-man-described-for-us-whom-we-are-invited-to-free-is-already-in/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“Confined on the ship, from which there is no escape, the madman is delivered to the river with its thousand arms, the sea with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/confined-on-the-ship-from-which-there-is-no-escape-the-madman-is/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [Believe what is productive is not sedentary but nomadic.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/believe-what-is-productive-is-not-sedentary-but-nomadic/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [Are the prisons overpopulated, or is the population over-imprisoned ?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/are-the-prisons-overpopulated-or-is-the-population-over-imprisoned/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [An American professor complained that a crypto-Marxist like me was invited in the USA, and I was denounced by the press in Eastern European…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/an-american-professor-complained-that-a-crypto-marxist-like-me-was/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [Withdraw allegiance from the old categories of the Negative (law, limit, castration, lack, lacuna), which the Western thought has so long held sacred as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/withdraw-allegiance-from-the-old-categories-of-the-negative-law-limit/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) [Explore all 272 Michel Foucault quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) ## More Accusing quotes > [You remember from watching the show, there are no "jokes." That's why if you see people on Twitter accusing me of being a "joke…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jay-mohr/you-remember-from-watching-the-show-there-are-no-jokes-that-s-why-if/) [Jay Mohr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jay-mohr/) > [I would have touched it like a child But knew my finger could but have touched Cold stone and water. I grew wild, Even…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/i-would-have-touched-it-like-a-child-but-knew-my-finger-could-but/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [Making fun of anyone who seeks happiness rather than money and accusing them of "lacking ambition."](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/making-fun-of-anyone-who-seeks-happiness-rather-than-money-and/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [I cannot bear the language TV chefs use - they don't seem able to look at a plate of vegetables without accusing it of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ann-widdecombe/i-cannot-bear-the-language-tv-chefs-use-they-don-t-seem-able-to-look/) [Ann Widdecombe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ann-widdecombe/) > [Critics are always complaining about the materialism of hip-hop and accusing the artists of living way above their means. But this ostentatious sort of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simon-de-pury/critics-are-always-complaining-about-the-materialism-of-hip-hop-and/) [Simon de Pury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simon-de-pury/) > [You keep accusing me of blasphemy all of the time, but I cannot be convicted of a victimless crime.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dan-barker/you-keep-accusing-me-of-blasphemy-all-of-the-time-but-i-cannot-be/) [Dan Barker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dan-barker/) > [She had heard it said that, before you could understand anybody, you needed to walk a mile in their shoes, which did not make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terry-pratchett/she-had-heard-it-said-that-before-you-could-understand-anybody-you/) [Terry Pratchett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terry-pratchett/) > [I'm a true believer in story. I think when you just tell people to think, people tend to get resistant and defensive and feel…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jordan-peele/i-m-a-true-believer-in-story-i-think-when-you-just-tell-people-to/) [Jordan Peele](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jordan-peele/) > [People have pointed out evidences of personal feeling in my notices as if they were accusing me of a misdemeanor, not knowing that criticism…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/people-have-pointed-out-evidences-of-personal-feeling-in-my-notices/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [Unless you're willing to fight and refight the same battles until you go blue in the face, drive the people you work with nuts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-moyers/unless-you-re-willing-to-fight-and-refight-the-same-battles-until-you/) [Bill Moyers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-moyers/) > [Nothing gets under my skin faster than accusing me of lying.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/nothing-gets-under-my-skin-faster-than-accusing-me-of-lying/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Believe not each accusing tongue, As most weak persons do; But still believe that story wrong, Which ought not to be true!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-brinsley-sheridan/believe-not-each-accusing-tongue-as-most-weak-persons-do-but-still/) [Richard Brinsley Sheridan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-brinsley-sheridan/) > [You told me I wrote that poem because I was afraid of dealing with myself. And I used my mom as an excuse, accusing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jay-asher/you-told-me-i-wrote-that-poem-because-i-was-afraid-of-dealing-with/) [Jay Asher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jay-asher/) > [I am accusing him of stealing my best material, he was a very funny man.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-carson/i-am-accusing-him-of-stealing-my-best-material-he-was-a-very-funny-man/) [Frank Carson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-carson/) > [We are not accusing you of being illegal, we are accusing you of being immoral](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-hodge/we-are-not-accusing-you-of-being-illegal-we-are-accusing-you-of-being/) [Margaret Hodge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-hodge/) Browse all 129 Accusing quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "If I open a book and see that the author is accusing an adversary of \"infantile leftism\" I shut it again right away. 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