Across the Pond Quotes

“People who are both powerful and dissatisfied are peculiarly dangerous.”
― Terry Eagleton, Across the Pond: An Englishman's View of America

“In a world in which everything bears the indelible impress of Man, it is refreshing to escape from time to time from this wall-to-wall humanisation. Hence the American enthusiasm for national parks and outdoor activities. It is seductive to see the world as though we were not there to see it. We can always dream of perceiving things as they are in themselves, without the buzz and distortion of human meaning. We can take a vacation now and then from the intolerable burden of sense-making, rather as we do when we treat human flesh as something to be mindlessly indulged. We can shuck off language and confront reality in the raw, as we imagine an innocent child might do.”
― Terry Eagleton, Across the Pond: An Englishman's View of America

“The words "I love you" are always at some level a quotation. All language is generalising, including words like "this," "here," "unique," "right now," and "my utterly special little sweetheart." The word "individual" originally mean "indivisible," meaning that to be a person was to be a part of a greater whole. There could never be simply one person, any more than there could simply be one letter or one number.”
― Terry Eagleton, Across the Pond: An Englishman's View of America

“British flight attendants warn you not to tamper with the smoke detectors in the aircraft toilets, whereas American flight attendants warn you not to tamper with, disable or destroy them.”
― Terry Eagleton, Across the Pond: An Englishman's View of America

“The trick is to keep cutting the present off from the past. In this way, you can try to deny the fact that the past is what we are made of, and that there would be no present without it. One of the several problems with this way of living is that it is not clear how what is reborn every moment can be said to be you. Personal identity involves a degree of continuity.”
― Terry Eagleton, Across the Pond: An Englishman's View of America

“Americans come out of the comparison rather better. They may overdo emotion, but they are not fearful of it. A surplus of feeling has rarely done as much damage as a deficiency of it.”
― Terry Eagleton, Across the Pond: An Englishman's View of America

“On handing the book back to my friend, the woman inquired "Is he gay?" No, said my friend. The woman pondered for a moment. "Is he English?" she asked.”
― Terry Eagleton, Across the Pond: An Englishman's View of America