Paul Ricoeur Quotes

Quotes about:

• The narrative constructs the identity of the character, what can be called his or her narrative identity, in constructing that of the story told. It is the identity of the story that makes the identity of the character.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Character, Identity, Stories

  55 Copy quote

• I find myself only by losing myself.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Losing, Losing Myself

  Paul Ricoeur (2016). “Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences”, p.106, Cambridge University Press

  43 Copy quote

• If you want to change people's obedience then you must change their imagination.

  Paul Ricoeur

  People, Imagination, Want

  48 Copy quote

• On a cosmic scale, our life is insignificant, yet this brief period when we appear in the world is the time in which all meaningful questions arise.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Meaningful, World, Life Is

  66 Copy quote

• There was a wise old owl who sat in a tree
  The less he spoke the more he heard
  The more he heard the less he spoke
  Why can't we be like that wise old owl in the tree?
  Speech must die to serve that which is spoken.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Wise, Tree, Owl

  52 Copy quote

• Living is already having been born, in a condition we have not chosen, a situation in which we find ourselves, a quarter of the universe in which we may feel we have been thrown and are wandering, lost. And yet it is against this background that we can begin, that is to say, give a new course to things.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Giving, May, Lost

  13 Copy quote

• Man is this plural and collective unity in which the unity of destination and the differences of destinies are to be understood through each other

  Paul Ricoeur

  Destiny, Men, Differences

  47 Copy quote

• If it is true that there is always more than one way of construing a text, it is not true that all interpretations are equal.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Way, Different Interpretations, Equal

  Paul Ricoeur (1976). “Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning”, p.79, TCU Press

  38 Copy quote

• Narrative identity takes part in the story's movement, in the dialectic between order and disorder

  Paul Ricoeur

  Order, Identity, Stories

  11 Copy quote

• We are not capable of producing a concept of time that is at once cosmological, biological, historical and individual

  Paul Ricoeur

  Historical, Individual, Concept Of Time

  31 Copy quote

• The moral law commands us to make the highest possible good in a world the final object of all our conduct.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Law, Finals, World

  Paul Ricoeur (2005). “The EPZ Conflict of Interpretations”, p.416, A&C Black

  31 Copy quote

• But myth is something else than an explanation of the world, of history, and of destiny. Myth expresses in terms of the world - that is, of the other world or the second world - the understanding that man has of himself in relation to the foundation and the limit of his existence. Hence to demythologize is to interpret myth, that is, to relate the objective representations of the myth to the self-understanding which is both shown and concealed in it.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Destiny, Men, Self

  Paul Ricoeur (1974). “The Conflict of Interpretations”, p.391, Northwestern University Press

  27 Copy quote

• It is always possible to argue against an interpretation, to confront interpretations, to arbitrate between them and to seek for an agreement, even if this agreement remains beyond our reach.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Agreement, Umpires, Arguing

  Paul Ricoeur (2016). “Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences”, p.175, Cambridge University Press

  19 Copy quote

• If the Resurrection is resurrection from the dead, all hope and freedom are in spite of death.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Resurrection, Spite, Ifs

  Paul Ricoeur (2005). “The EPZ Conflict of Interpretations”, p.404, A&C Black

  33 Copy quote

• Beyond the desert of criticism, we wish to be called again.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Criticism, Wish, Desert

  13 Copy quote

• The dictionary contains no metaphors.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Metaphor, Dictionary

  Paul Ricoeur (2004). “The Rule of Metaphor: The Creation of Meaning in Language”, p.112, Routledge

  12 Copy quote

• The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Moving, Validation, Two

  Paul Ricoeur (2006). “From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics, II”

  67 Copy quote

• Testimony gives something to be interpreted.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Giving, Testimony

  15 Copy quote

• The spectacle is at the same time the mirage of self in the mirror of things.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Mirrors, Self, Mirages

  Paul Ricoeur, Denis Savage (2008). “Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation”, p.379, Motilal Banarsidass Publishe

  18 Copy quote

• To put it in a few words, the true malice of man appears only in the state and in the church, as institutions of gathering together, of recapitulation, of totalization.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Religious, Men, Church

  Paul Ricoeur (1974). “The Conflict of Interpretations”, p.423, Northwestern University Press

  30 Copy quote

• Ordinary language carries with it conditions of meaning which it is easy to recognize by classifying the contexts in which the expression is employed in a meaningful manner.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Meaningful, Expression, Ordinary

  29 Copy quote

• Wisdom finds its literary expression in wisdom literature.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Wisdom, Expression, Literature

  19 Copy quote

• Although there has always been a hermeneutic problem in Christianity, the hermeneutic question today seems to us a new one.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Today, Problem, Good Christian

  Paul Ricoeur (1974). “The Conflict of Interpretations”, p.381, Northwestern University Press

  27 Copy quote

• Testimony demands to be interpreted because of the dialectic of meaning and event that traverses it

  Paul Ricoeur

  Events, Demand, Testimony

  23 Copy quote

• This is perhaps the most profound meaning of the book of Job, the best example of wisdom.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Wisdom, Jobs, Book

  7 Copy quote

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