Emmanuel Levinas Quotes
Emmanuel Levinas was a 20th-century Lithuanian-born French Jewish philosopher of the phenomenological and ethical tradition, one of the most influential figures of late 20th-century continental philosophy. Trained under Husserl and Heidegger, whose work he was instrumental in introducing to the French-speaking world, he developed in his major works Totality and Infinity (1961) and Otherwise than Being (1974) an ethics of radical responsibility for the Other, prior to and grounding all metaphysics. The quotes below are attributed to Emmanuel Levinas, organized by topic.
Emmanuel Levinas on God
-
Attributed to Emmanuel Levinas:
“Religion is the bond between the same and the other without constituting a totality.”
-
Attributed to Emmanuel Levinas:
“The face of the other is the trace of the infinite.”
Emmanuel Levinas on Love
-
Attributed to Emmanuel Levinas:
“The face speaks to me and thereby invites me to a relation.”
Emmanuel Levinas on Virtue
-
Attributed to Emmanuel Levinas:
“Ethics is first philosophy.”
-
Attributed to Emmanuel Levinas:
“The face of the Other commands me to responsibility.”
-
Attributed to Emmanuel Levinas:
“To be I is to have responsibility, as if I were the elected one.”
-
Attributed to Emmanuel Levinas:
“The other is not me, and I am responsible for him.”