I believe in the value of the book, which keeps something irreplaceable, and in the necessity of fighting to secure its respect.
Jacques DerridaSurviving - that is the other name of a mourning whose possibility is never to be awaited.
Jacques DerridaPeace is only possible when one of the warring sides takes the first step, the hazardous initiative, the risk of opening up dialogue, and decides to make the gesture that will lead not only to an armistice but to peace.
Jacques DerridaNo one will ever know from what secret I am writing and the fact that I say so changes nothing.
Jacques DerridaA determination or an effect within a system which is no longer that of a presence but of a diffrance, a system that no longer tolerates the opposition of activity and passivity, nor that of cause and effect, or of indetermination and determination, etc., such that in designating consciousness as an effect or a determination, one continues - for strategic reasons that can be more or less lucidly deliberated and systematically calculated - to operate according to the lexicon of that which one is de-limiting.
Jacques DerridaLearning to live ought to mean learning to die - to acknowledge, to accept, an absolute mortality - without positive outcome,or resurrection, or redemption, for oneself or for anyone else. That has been the old philosophical injunction since Plato: to be a philosopher is to learn how to die.
Jacques Derrida