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Simon Critchley Quotes

Total quotes: 8
“The only proof of love may be the ease with which it can be betrayed.”
— Simon Critchley, Stay, Illusion!: The Hamlet Doctrine
Tagged: Love
“Life is a detour for an organism that came from nothing and will soon return to nothing.”
— Simon Critchley, Stay, Illusion!: The Hamlet Doctrine
Tagged: Ashes to Ashes, Life, Nihilism
“Reality is structured by belief, by a faith in fantasy that we know to be a fantasy yet we believe nonetheless.”
— Simon Critchley, The Faith of the Faithless
Tagged: Reality, Faith, Don’t Let It All Through
“Humor has the same formal structure as depression, but it is an anti-depressant that works by the ego finding itself ridiculous.”
— Simon Critchley, Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance (Radical Thinkers)
Tagged: comedy, humor, Jokes, Depression
“Conscience is the inward ear that listens for the repetition of the infinite demand.”
— Simon Critchley, The Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology
Tagged: Faith
“Is there some truth that is revealed when lovers argue? No. Arguing is to a relationship what masturbation is to sex.”
— Simon Critchley, ABC of Impossibility
Tagged: Relationships
“I started working as a lifeguard, for about 16 months. I’m not joking. I was a good swimmer. Now, the only thing you’re not allowed to do when you’re at a swimming pool was to read. So, I started to read. Thousands of children drowned as a result.”
— Simon Critchley, simon-critchley
Tagged: Lifeguarding, How It Feels To Be A Lifeguard That Likes To Read, Jokes
“By contrast, the sceptic is simply sceptical about the possibility of belief as such. Their counsel is to look at both sides of an issue and practise a suspension of judgement, or what was called an epoché, in all matters. In Philo's words, 'There is nothing firm we can say about anything.' The sceptic neither declines nor chooses, but simply suspends judgement and practises silence or aphasia. Thus, the sceptic refuses to either assert or deny that there is life after death, whether the soul is separate from the body or whether there is a heaven or a hell. In neither asserting nor denying anything, one lives in a tranquillity that is open to all forms of inquiry and an utter stranger to any species of dogmatism. Appropriately enough, it is not known how Pyrrho died, although it would be taking his scepticism too far to deny that it occurred.”
— Simon Critchley, The Book of Dead Philosophers
Tagged: Openness, Scepticism
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