1001Philosophers

Mikhail Bakhtin Quotes on Truth

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin was a Russian philosopher of language, literary theorist, and philosophical anthropologist whose work, much of it written in obscurity and exile, transformed twentieth-century literary theory after its rediscovery in the 1960s. This page collects quotes attributed to Mikhail Bakhtin on the topic of truth, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • Attributed to Mikhail Bakhtin:

    “Truth is not born nor is it found inside the head of an individual person; it is born between people.”

  • Attributed to Mikhail Bakhtin:

    “To be is to communicate dialogically.”

  • Attributed to Mikhail Bakhtin:

    “Every word smells of the contexts in which it has lived its life.”

  • Attributed to Mikhail Bakhtin:

    “The novel is the great dialogic form.”

  • Attributed to Mikhail Bakhtin:

    “There is neither a first nor a last word; the contexts of dialogue have no limit.”