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It isn't at all a matter of being optimistic, but rather of continuing to have faith in the ongoing and literally unending process of emancipation and enlightenment that, in my opinion, frames and gives direction to the intellectual vocation.

— Edward Said Orientalism (1978)

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Spirituality

More quotes by Edward Said

I’m interested in the tension between what is represented and what isn’t represented, between the articulate and the silent.

As a way of maintaining relative intellectual independence, having the attitude of an amateur instead of a professional is a better course.

The history of other cultures is non-existent until it erupts in confrontation with the United States.

Culture and Imperialism (1993)

I’ve always been interested in what gets left out.

When one learns something one first performs an act of will, because only by willing to learn can one learn.

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Reason is Life's sole arbiter, the magic Laby'rinth's single clue:
Worlds lie above, beyond its ken; what crosses it can ne'er be true.

Richard Francis Burton The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

In imitating the exemplary acts of a god or of a mythic hero, or simply by recounting their adventures, the man of an archaic society detaches himself from profane time and magically re-enters the Great Time, the sacred time.

Mircea Eliade Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (1967)

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

Thomas Jefferson

The superior man loves his soul; the inferior man loves his property.

Confucius

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Said (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.