1001Philosophers

Donna Haraway Quotes

Donna Haraway is an American philosopher of science, biologist, and feminist theorist who has been one of the most influential voices in late-twentieth and twenty-first century science and technology studies. Her A Cyborg Manifesto rejected the boundaries between human, animal, and machine and offered the cyborg as an ironic figure for politics in a high-tech age, while her essay Situated Knowledges defended a feminist objectivity rooted in partial perspective rather than the view from nowhere. The quotes below are attributed to Donna Haraway, organized by topic.

Donna Haraway on Knowledge

  • “Blasphemy has always seemed to require taking things very seriously.”

    A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women : The Reinvention of Nature (1991), pp.149-181.
  • “All of reality in late capitalist culture lusts to become an image for its own security.”

    Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908-1936" in Culture/power/history: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory (1994), p. 72

Donna Haraway on Life

  • Attributed to Donna Haraway:

    “Stay with the trouble.”

  • “Technology is not neutral. We're inside of what we make, and it's inside of us. We're living in a world of connections — and it matters which ones get made and unmade.”

    A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women : The Reinvention of Nature (1991), pp.149-181.

Donna Haraway on Mind

  • “I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.”

    A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women : The Reinvention of Nature (1991), pp.149-181.

Donna Haraway on Nature

  • Attributed to Donna Haraway:

    “We are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism.”

  • Attributed to Donna Haraway:

    “Nothing comes without its world.”

  • Attributed to Donna Haraway:

    “Beings do not preexist their relatings.”

  • “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women : The Reinvention of Nature (1991), pp.149-181.”

    Blasphemy has always seemed to require taking things very seriously.
  • “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women : The Reinvention of Nature (1991), pp.149-181.”

    Technology is not neutral. We're inside of what we make, and it's inside of us. We're living in a world of connections — and it matters which ones get made and unmade.
  • “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women : The Reinvention of Nature (1991), pp.149-181.”

    Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.

Read all Donna Haraway quotes on Nature

Donna Haraway on Politics

  • “Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908-1936" in Culture/power/history: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory (1994), p. 72”

    All of reality in late capitalist culture lusts to become an image for its own security.