The notion of travelling to far places in order to study alien peoples and cultures, is unique to Western man; it springs from the predatory genius of the Greeks; no primitive peoples have ever come to study us. This is, on the one hand, a disinterested, intellectually inspired impulse. It is one of our glories. But it is, on the other, part and parcel of exploitation. [] The Western obsession with inquiry, with analysis, with the classification of all living forms, is itself a mode of subjugation, of psychological and technical mastery.
George SteinerI have students who are now in chairs in five continents. They invite me to their inaugurals. A tremendous reward.
George SteinerThere is something terribly wrong with a culture inebriated by noise and gregariousness.
George SteinerThe most important tribute any human being can pay to a poem or a piece of prose he or she really loves is to learn it by heart. Not by brain, by heart; the expression is vital.
George SteinerMy father loved poetry and music. But deep in himself he thought teaching the finest thing a person could do.
George Steiner