Jacques Derrida

Philosophy France 1930 – 2004 99 quotes

Developed deconstruction to challenge binary oppositions in texts and thought.

Quotes by Jacques Derrida

The decision is always made in the night, in the absence of full knowledge.

Force of Law: The 'Mystical Foundation of Authority' 1990

The spectral is that which returns, that which haunts, that which is neither present nor absent.

Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International 1993

The messianic is not a future event, but a structure of expectation.

Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International 1993

The 'I' is always already divided, always already plural.

Writing and Difference 1978

The limit is not an external boundary, but an internal possibility.

Margins of Philosophy 1972

The question of the animal is the question of the limit of humanity.

The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Come) 2002

The university is a place where one should be able to say everything, even the unsayable.

Mochlos, or The Conflict of the Faculties 1983

The trace is the opening of the first relationship with the other.

Of Grammatology 1967

The origin is always already deferred.

Of Grammatology 1967

The center is not a fixed point, but a function.

Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences 1967

The play of the world is the absence of a center.

Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences 1967

The undecidable is not the undecided, but that which resists decision.

Force of Law: The 'Mystical Foundation of Authority' 1990

The secret is not a content, but a structure.

Aporias 1993

The future is not something that will happen, but something that is happening now.

Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International 1993

The 'proper' is always already contaminated by the 'improper'.

Margins of Philosophy 1972

The question of language is always already a question of the other.

Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs 1972

The voice is always already a writing.

Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs 1967

The subject is not a substance, but a function.

Of Grammatology 1967

The event is always a surprise, always something that cannot be anticipated.

Given Time: I. Counterfeit Money 1992

The 'I' is always already a 'we'.

Writing and Difference 1978