Portrait of Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault

Power structures, postmodernism

Contemporary influential 151 sayings

Sayings by Michel Foucault

The question is not to know what one is, but what one is no longer.

1969 — The Archaeology of Knowledge
Shocking Unverifiable

The most important thing for an intellectual is to be able to change his mind.

1984 — Interview
Shocking Unverifiable

The body is a battlefield.

1975 — Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Shocking Unverifiable

The work of the intellectual is not to sculpt the beautiful soul, but to tear away the masks of ignorance.

1977 — Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977
Shocking Unverifiable

The history of sexuality is not a history of ideas, but a history of practices.

1976 — The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction
Shocking Unverifiable

The care of the self is not a moral attitude but a way of life.

1984 — The History of Sexuality, Vol. 3: The Care of the Self
Shocking Unverifiable

The human sciences are not sciences, but technologies of power.

1966 — The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences
Shocking Unverifiable

The most dangerous moment for a philosophy is when it becomes a dogma.

1984 — Interview
Shocking Unverifiable

The prison is a factory of delinquents.

1975 — Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Shocking Unverifiable

The function of the intellectual is to question the obvious.

1977 — Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977
Shocking Unverifiable

The body is a political space.

1975 — Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Shocking Unverifiable