Michel Foucault Quotes
Michel Foucault was a 20th-century French philosopher, historian, and social theorist, one of the most influential figures of post-war continental philosophy. His major works, including Madness and Civilisation, The Order of Things, Discipline and Punish, and the multi-volume History of Sexuality, traced the historical conditions under which categories such as madness, illness, criminality, and sexuality came to take their modern forms. The quotes below are attributed to Michel Foucault, organized by topic.
Michel Foucault on Freedom
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Attributed to Michel Foucault:
“I don't feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am.”
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Attributed to Michel Foucault:
“Visibility is a trap.”
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Attributed to Michel Foucault:
“Maybe the target nowadays is not to discover what we are, but to refuse what we are.”
Michel Foucault on Knowledge
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Attributed to Michel Foucault:
“Knowledge is not for knowing: knowledge is for cutting.”
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Attributed to Michel Foucault:
“There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine.”
Michel Foucault on Mind
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Attributed to Michel Foucault:
“The soul is the prison of the body.”
Michel Foucault on Politics
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Attributed to Michel Foucault:
“Where there is power, there is resistance.”
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Attributed to Michel Foucault:
“Modern man is much sooner judged than seen.”
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Attributed to Michel Foucault:
“The strategic adversary is fascism: the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behaviour.”