Michel Foucault

Power structures, postmodernism

Contemporary influential 151 sayings

Sayings by Michel Foucault

Power is not a thing, but a relationship.

1976 — The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The history of ideas is not the history of ideas.

1969 — The Archaeology of Knowledge
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Life is a game, and I play it with a certain amount of cynicism.

1980 — Interview
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The present is not a given; it is a construction.

1978 — Interview
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

There is no power without resistance.

1976 — The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The prison is the only place where a man can be himself.

1975 — Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The madman is the man who has lost everything but himself.

1961 — Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it induces regular effects of power.

1977 — Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I am not a prophet, I am a diagnostician.

1980 — Interview
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The human body is the best picture of the human soul.

1975 — Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

We must not think that the power of the state is a monolithic block.

1977 — Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Pleasure and power are not mutually exclusive.

1976 — The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The greatest danger for man is to become a slave.

1978 — Interview
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The history of madness is the history of silence.

1961 — Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The work of art is a scream.

1980 — Interview
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I dream of a society where the power of the state is reduced to a minimum.

1978 — Interview
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

We should not try to understand power, but rather to understand how power works.

1976 — The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The history of truth is a history of error.

1969 — The Archaeology of Knowledge
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The intellectual's role is to show how things work.

1978 — Interview
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The human sciences are a kind of counter-science.

1966 — The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable