Gilles Deleuze

“Academics' lives are seldom interesting.”

“The eye binds light, is itself a bound light. This binding is a reproductive synthesis, a Habitus.”

“Substance must itself be said of the modes and only of the modes.”

“Bring something incomprehensible into the world!”

“A concept is a brick. It can be used to build a courthouse of reason. Or it can be thrown through the window.”

“You never walk alone. Even the devil is the lord of flies.”

“It is not by means of a metaphor that a banking or stock-market transaction, a claim, a coupon, a credit, is able to arouse people who are not necessarily bankers. And what about the effects of money that grows, money that produces more money? There are socioeconomic "complexes" that are also veritable complexes of the unconscious, and that communicate a voluptuous wave from the top to the bottom of their hierarchy (the military-industrial complex). And ideology, Oedipus, and the phallus have nothing to do with this, because they depend on it rather than being its impetus. For it is a matter of flows, of stocks, of breaks in and fluctuations of flows; desire is present wherever something flows and runs, carrying along with it interested subjects—but also drunken or slumbering subjects—toward lethal destinations.”

“When someone asks 'what's the use of philosophy?' the reply must be aggressive, since the question tries to be ironic and caustic. Philosophy does not serve the State or the Church, who have other concerns. It serves no established power.”

“What we should in fact do, is stop allowing philosophers to reflect 'on' things. The philosopher creates, he doesn't reflect.”

“The shame of being a man - is there any better reason to write?”