People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does.

'Truth' is to be understood as a system of ordered procedures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation and operation of statements. 'Truth' is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it. A 'regime' of truth.

Do not use thought to ground a political practice in Truth; nor political action to discredit, as mere speculation, a line of thought. Use political practice as an intensifier of thought, and analysis as a multiplier of the forms and domains for the intervention of political action.

Knowledge is not made for understanding; it is made for cutting.

Death left its old tragic heaven and became the lyrical core of man: his invisible truth, his visible secret.

[Knowledge is governed not by] a theory of knowledge, but by a theory of discursive practice.

Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.