18+ E. P. Thompson Quotes On Education, Paranoia

E. P. Thompson was a British historian and social critic. He is best known for his book The Making of the English Working Class, which is considered a classic work of social history. He was also a prominent figure in the British New Left of the 1960s and 1970s. Following is our collection on famous quotes by E. P. Thompson on education, leadership, life.

The readings of Soviet society are as many as the experts you speak to. In my view, it's a society that is overdue for measures of democratization and organization. — E. P. Thompson

We must not look at the past with the enormous condescension of posterity. — E. P. Thompson

I have become a prisoner of the peace movement. But you can't say that the termination is coming and then say that you are going back to your own garden to dig. — E. P. Thompson

The talk about balance, nuclear balance, seems to me to be metaphysical and doesn't seem to be real at all. — E. P. Thompson

This going into Europe will not turn out to be the thrilling mutual exchange supposed. It is more like nine middle-aged couples with failing marriages meeting in a darkened bedroom in a Brussels hotel for a group grope. — E. P. Thompson

There are no European voices at Geneva, there are no European voices at START. — E. P. Thompson

For two decades the state has been taking liberties, and these liberties were once ours. — E. P. Thompson

I think that the U.S. does have this very much more open attitude, and I admire it very much and I think it's very important to the world. But the information and the discussion sometimes come too late, after the effective decision has been made. — E. P. Thompson

The foulest damage to our political life comes not from the 'secrets' which they hide from us, but from the little bits of half-truth and disinformation which they do tell us. These are already pre-digested, and then are sicked up as little gobbits of authorised spew. The columns of defense correspondents in the establishment sheets serve as the spittoons. — E. P. Thompson

The missiles come first, and the justifications come second. — E. P. Thompson

Could I interrupt here, because there is an alternative explanation, which you are particularly well placed to examine. You know the argument that it is the alchemists in the laboratories who invent the sweet new kits. — E. P. Thompson

I don't care tuppence whether I'm forced into a leadership position or not. I'd much sooner not. — E. P. Thompson

At a certain point one ceases to defend a certain view of history; one must defend history itself. — E. P. Thompson

You know as a scientist that both were developed completely independently of each other in the laboratories. And only afterward were the political situations contrived out of which they could be justified. — E. P. Thompson

I am convinced that we are in a terminal process. — E. P. Thompson

I will hear no talk that there are no intermediate-range weapons on the NATO side. — E. P. Thompson

I think you will find scientists that think like you in Germany and Britain, and you will find politicians that think like Weinberger. I think the most bellicose ruling group in the Western world at the moment is the British. — E. P. Thompson

There is not a thought that is being thought in the West or the East that is not active in some Indian mind — E. P. Thompson

Life Lessons by E. P. Thompson

1. E. P. Thompson's work emphasizes the importance of understanding history from the perspective of the people who lived it, rather than just from the perspective of the powerful.
2. He also highlighted the importance of using history to understand the present, and to inform our decisions about the future.
3. Finally, Thompson's work demonstrates the power of using history to challenge dominant narratives and to uncover hidden stories.