Portrait of Jacques Derrida

Jacques Derrida

Deconstruction

Contemporary influential 117 sayings

Sayings by Jacques Derrida

To love is to give what one does not have to someone who does not want it.

N/A (Lacanian) — This is a popular paraphrase of a Lacanian concept, sometimes mistakenly attributed to Derrida, thou…
Love & Relationships Unverifiable

The book is a tomb.

1972 — Dissemination
Educational Unverifiable

The present is always already past.

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

To be is to be written.

1960s (conceptually) — While this captures a core idea of his work on writing and existence, it's a conceptual summary rath…
Wisdom Unverifiable

The question of the other is always a question of alterity.

1990s (conceptually) — This is a conceptual paraphrase of his work on ethics and alterity.
Wisdom Unverifiable

The university is a space of unconditional hospitality.

2004 — Eyes of the University: Right to Philosophy 2
Educational Unverifiable

To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend.

1972 — From 'Dissemination'
Wisdom Confirmed

The future can only be anticipated in the form of an absolute danger.

1967 — From 'Of Grammatology'
Wisdom Unverifiable

Deconstruction is justice.

1990 — From 'Force of Law'
Justice & Rights Unverifiable

I am at war with myself.

2004 — Interview with 'Le Monde'
War & Conflict Unverifiable

The animal looks at us, and we are naked before it.

2006 — From 'The Animal That Therefore I Am'
Nature & World Confirmed

Every discourse is a hostage to its own rhetoric.

1972 — From 'Margins of Philosophy'
Wisdom Unverifiable

The ghost is not simply a dead or missing person, but a social figure.

1993 — From 'Specters of Marx'
Life & Death Unverifiable

The archive is a place of power.

1995 — From 'Archive Fever'
Power & Leadership Unverifiable

The meaning of meaning is infinite différance.

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

Deconstruction is not a demolition, but a careful dismantling to understand how a text or concept is put together.

1984 — Interview with Richard Kearney, 'Dialogues with Contemporary Continental Thinkers'
General Unverifiable

The sign is always a sign of the supplement.

1967 — Of Grammatology
General Unverifiable

Writing is the name of these two things at once: the movement of signifying production and the undoing of presence.

1967 — Of Grammatology
General Unverifiable

The trace is not a presence but a simulacrum of a presence that dislocates, displaces, and refers beyond itself.

1967 — Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs
Social & Racial Unverifiable

There is no pure origin.

1967 — Of Grammatology
General Unverifiable
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