# Quotes about ideology - Quotes: 22 - Authors: 11 - Broader topic: [Quotes about politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.json ## Quotes > The theorists make high-minded speeches. Their followers cheer and applaud—briefly—and then they get back to the business of appropriating everything of value. [David Eddings](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-eddings.md) · [The Redemption of Althalus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-eddings/the-redemption-of-althalus.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-eddings/the-redemption-of-althalus/the-theorists-make.md) Topics: [hypocrisy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > "We're at a very primitive stage of mankind," Nolan declared, "that's what people don't understand. Just pick up the Times on any given day and you've got a catalogue of ape behaviour. Strip away the slogans and excuses and verbiage, the so-called ideology, and you're reading about what one pack of chimpanzees did to another." [Robert S. Stone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone.md) · [A Flag for Sunrise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/a-flag-for-sunrise.md) · p. 26 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/a-flag-for-sunrise/were-at-a-very.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > Only one thing never changes – the human heart. Revolutions and ideologies may lacerate it, even break it, but they cannot change its essence. After Fascism and Communism and Capitalism and Socialism are over and forgotten as completely as slavery and the old South, that same headstrong human heart will be clamoring for the old things it wept for in Eden – love and a chance to be noble, laughter and a chance to adore something, someone, somewhere. (Ch. 3) [William Alexander Percy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy.md) · [Lanterns On The Levee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/only-one-thing.md) Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > Maybe there are two types of people in the world: those who favor humans over ideology, and those who favor ideology over humans. I prefer humans to ideology, but right now the ideologues are winning, and they're creating a stage for artificial high dramas, where everyone is either a magnificent hero or a sickening villain. [Jon Ronson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-ronson.md) · [So You've Been Publicly Shamed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-ronson/so-youve-been-publicly-shamed.md) · p. 309 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-ronson/so-youve-been-publicly-shamed/maybe-there-are.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [fanaticism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > Like God, however, ideology is dead. The bloody excesses of the twentieth century killed it. [Jordan B. Peterson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson.md) · [Beyond Order](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson/beyond-order.md) · p. 177 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson/beyond-order/like-god-however.md) Topics: [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > “Ideology is all there is.” > > “Really? I would have thought there were many other human qualities worth considering. Fairness. Generosity. A sense of humour. A willingness to see the best in people, even those we do not automatically agree with.” [Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Poseidon's Wake](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/poseidons-wake.md) · p. 260 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/poseidons-wake/ideology-is-all.md) Topics: [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [generosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/generosity.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > You show me ten men who cherish some religious doctrine or political ideology, and I’ll show you nine men whose minds are utterly impervious to any factual evidence which contradicts their beliefs, and who regard the producer of such evidence as a criminal who ought to be suppressed. For instance, on the Fourth Level Europo-American Sector, where I was just working, there is a political sect, the Communists, who, in the territory under their control, forbid the teaching of certain well-established facts of genetics and heredity, because those facts do not fit the world picture demanded by their political doctrines. And on the same sector, a religious sect recently tried, in some sections successfully, to outlaw of the teaching of evolution by natural selection. [H. Beam Piper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/h-beam-piper.md) · [The Complete Paratime](https://www.leafyquotes.com/h-beam-piper/the-complete-paratime.md) · p. 82 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/h-beam-piper/the-complete-paratime/you-show-me-ten.md) Topics: [fanaticism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > If you want to know what's shortly due for the guillotine look for the most obvious of all symptoms: extremism. It is an almost infallible sign — a kind of death-rattle — when a human institution is forced by its members into stressing those and only those factors which are identificatory, at the expense of others which it necessarily shares with competing institutions because human beings belong to all of them. [John Brunner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner.md) · [Stand On Zanzibar](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/if-you-want.md) Topics: [fanaticism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > Myth is depoliticized speech. [Roland Barthes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes.md) · [Mythologies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies.md) · p. 145 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies/myth-is-depoliticized.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > Myth deprives the object of which it speaks of all history. In it, history evaporates. [Roland Barthes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes.md) · [Mythologies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies.md) · p. 151 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies/myth-deprives-the.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > Bourgeois norms are experienced as the evident laws of a natural order—the further the bourgeois class propagates its representations, the more naturalized they become. [Roland Barthes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes.md) · [Mythologies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies.md) · p. 140 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies/bourgeois-norms-are.md) Topics: [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > By reducing any quality to quantity, myth economizes intelligence: it understands reality more cheaply. [Roland Barthes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes.md) · [Mythologies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies.md) · p. 153 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies/by-reducing-any.md) Topics: [intelligence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intelligence.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > The bourgeoisie hides the fact that it is the bourgeoisie and thereby produces myth; revolution announces itself openly as revolution and thereby abolishes myth. [Roland Barthes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes.md) · [Mythologies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies.md) · p. 146 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roland-barthes/mythologies/the-bourgeoisie-hides.md) Topics: [revolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revolution.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > “Each of us remains convinced that our own subjective viewpoint is more urgent than anyone else’s—indeed, even more valid than the objective matrix that underlies so-called reality. After all, the subjective view is a grand theater. To be hero of an ongoing drama. It’s why ideologies and bigotries survive against all evidence or logic. > > “Subjective obstinacy had advantages, Morris, when we were busy evolving into nature’s champion egotists. It led to human mastery over the planet…and to our species nearly wiping itself out.” [David Brin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin.md) · [Kil’n People](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/kiln-people.md) · p. 318 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/kiln-people/each-of-us-remains.md) Topics: [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > The variety of inventive ideas—and ideologies—that people can come up with never ceases to amaze me, especially when they’re stoked by the ultimate drug, self-righteousness. [David Brin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin.md) · [Kil’n People](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/kiln-people.md) · p. 131 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/kiln-people/the-variety-of-inventive.md) Topics: [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > Ideologies are too seductive anyway. It does a man good to see things from a different point of view. [David Brin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin.md) · [Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth.md) · p. 328 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth/ideologies-are-too.md) Topics: [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md), [point of view](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/point-of-view.md) > The contemporary era constantly proclaims itself as post-ideological, but this denial of ideology only provides the ultimate proof that we are more than ever embedded in ideology. Ideology is always a field of struggle - among other things, the struggle for appropriating past traditions. [Slavoj Žižek](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek.md) · [First as Tragedy, Then as Farce](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/first-as-tragedy-then-as-farce.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/first-as-tragedy-then-as-farce/the-contemporary-era.md) Topics: [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > There should be no compromise here: anti-Semitism is not just one-among ideologies; it is ideology as such kat'exohen. It embodies the zero-level (or the purest form) of ideology, providing its elementary coordinates: social antagonist ("class struggle") is mystified and displaced so that its cause is projected onto the external intruder. [Slavoj Žižek](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek.md) · [Living in the End Times](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/living-in-the-end-times.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/living-in-the-end-times/there-should-be-no-compromise.md) Topics: [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > Ideology is not a dreamlike illusion that we build to escape insupportable; in its basic dimension, it is a fantasy-construction which serves as a support for our reality itself; an illusion which structures our effective, real social relations and thereby masks some insupportable, real, impossible kernel. [Slavoj Žižek](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek.md) · [The Sublime Object of Ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology/ideology-is-not.md) Topics: [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > In the Critique of Cynical Reasoning, a great bestseller in Germany (Sloterdijk, 1983), Peter Sloterdijk puts forward the thesis that ideology's dominant mode of functioning is cynical which renders impossible - or, more precisely, vain - the classical critical-ideological procedure. The cynical subject is quite aware of the distance between the ideological mask and the social reality, but he none the less still insists upon the mask [Slavoj Žižek](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek.md) · [The Sublime Object of Ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology.md) · p. 29 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology/in-the-critique.md) Topics: [cynicism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cynicism.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > What is really disturbing about The Name of the Rose, however, is the underlying belief in the liberating, anti-totalitarian force of laughter, of ironic distance. Our thesis here is almost the exact opposite of the underlying premise of Eco's novel: in contemporary socities, democratic or totalitarian, that cynical distance, laughter, irony, are so to speak, part of the game. The ruling ideology is not meant to be taken seriously or literally. Perhaps the greatest danger for totalitarianism is people who take ideology seriously. [Slavoj Žižek](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek.md) · [The Sublime Object of Ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology.md) · p. 27 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology/what-is-really.md) Topics: [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md), [totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism.md), [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md) > This is probably the fundamental dimension of 'ideology': ideology is not simply a 'false consciousness', an illusory representation of reality, it is rather this reality itself which is already to be conceived as 'ideological' - 'ideological' is a social reality whose very existence implies the non-knowledge of its participants as to its essence -that is, the social effectivity, the very reproduction of which implies that the individuals 'do not know what they are doing'. 'Ideological is not the false consciousness of a (social) being but this being itself in so far as it is supported by "false consciousness"'. Thus we have finally reached the dimension of the symptom, because one of its possible definitions would also be 'a formation whose very consistency implies a certain non-knowledge on the part of the subject': the subject can 'enjoy his symptom' only in so far as its logic escapes him - the measure of the success of its interpretation is precisely its dissolution. [Slavoj Žižek](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek.md) · [The Sublime Object of Ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology/this-is-probably.md) Topics: [ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology.md)