25 Slavoj Zizek Quotes by the Modern Philosopher

By Norbert Juma | Published June 29, 2023

If you are looking for some thought-provoking material, these Slavoj Zizek quotes are for you.

Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian philosopher, public intellectual, and cultural critic.

Check out the Slavoj Zizek below quotes to learn more.

An Unconventional Thinker

Slavoj Zizek stands out among the traditional intellectuals and is known for his provocative and unorthodox style.

He is a prominent figure in the field of contemporary philosophy and has always been an advocate of different theories, including:

Lacanian
Psychoanalysis
Hegelian dialectics

He used these theories to analyze current issues, trying to bridge the gap between popular culture and traditional approaches.

For this reason, many people tend to agree with his thoughts and observations.

Zizek as a Critique

Zizek’s association with Lacanian psychoanalysis is central to his intellectual theories.

Using Lacan’s theories, Zizek explores the key association between subjectivity, desire, and ideology.

According to him, ideology works at the back end of a person or his/her unconscious.

It shapes a person’s desires and beliefs, which generally obscures the key structure of ideology.

Ideology intersects with things like:

Politics
Popular culture
Social phenomena

Reinvigoration of the Hegelian notion

Zizek is a strong proponent of Hegelian dialectics.

As a result, Zizek tried to explore the key aspects of radical politics.

This type of ideology has a revolutionary potential, which serves as a way to reinvigorate the Hegelian notion.

In addition, Zizek challenges the ideas of liberal politics.

This allows him to challenge the current capitalist system.

On the other hand, he is a strong advocate for collectivism.

With these ideas, Zizek casts his influence on leftist thought and helps to rejuvenate it.

This ideology also started debates regarding the political struggle and its future.

As a Global Capitalism Critique

Zizek was also popular as a critique of consumerist culture and global capitalism.

According to his theory, capitalism takes strength from the rampant production of desires.

This creates a cycle of consumption that never ends.

He further investigates the ideology of the illusion of freedom and choice found in consumerist societies.

Zizek discusses the process by which desires are shaped.

The most noteworthy concept in his ideology is the involvement of market forces.

Hence, Zizek asks for a critical examination of the mechanisms and strategies used by the capitalist forces.

On the contrary, he advocates for a sustainable and equitable economic strategy.

Top 5 Slavoj Zizek Quotes

These are the top 5 quotes by Slavoj Zizek that are a must-read.

1. “We need useless theory more than ever today.”— Slavoj Zizek

2. “Humanity is OK, but 99% of people are boring idiots.” — Slavoj Zizek

3. “Beyond the fiction of reality, there is the reality of the fiction.” — Slavoj Zizek

4. “It’s bad if we are controlled, but if we’re not, it can be even worse.” — Slavoj Zizek

5. “We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.” — Slavoj Zizek

Slavoj Zizek Quotes About Ideology

These Slavoj Zizek quotes present his views and definition of ideology.

6. “Ideology today is unfreedom which you sincerely personally experience as freedom.” — Slavoj Zizek

7. “The minimum necessary structuring ingredient of every ideology is to distance itself from another ideology, to denounce its other as ideology.” — Slavoj Zizek

8. “I already am eating from the trash can all the time. The name of this trash can is Ideology. The material force of ideology makes me not see what I am effectively eating.” — Slavoj Zizek

9. “Ideology is a certain unique experience of the universe and your place in it, to put it in standard terms, which serves the production of the existing power relations and blah blah blah.” — Slavoj Zizek

10. “You can be a fanatical millennialist religious mystic, and you are, in a certain way, not outside of ideology. Your position can be that of perfectly describing the data, and nonetheless, your point is ideological.” — Slavoj Zizek

Slavoj Zizek Quotes About Philosophy

Known as a great philosopher worldwide, these quotes reflect Zizek’s philosophy.

11. “What we philosophers can do is just correct the questions.” — Slavoj Zizek

12. “Without the communist oppression, I am absolutely sure I would now be a local stupid professor of philosophy in Ljubljana.” — Slavoj Zizek

13. “I think that the task of philosophy is not to provide answers, but to show how the way we perceive a problem can be itself part of a problem.” — Slavoj Zizek

14. “My instinct as a philosopher is that we are effectively approaching a multicentric world, which means we need to ask new, and for the traditional left, unpleasant questions.” — Slavoj Zizek

15. “Confucius was not so much a philosopher as a proto-ideologist: what interested him was not metaphysical Truths but a harmonious social order within which individuals could lead happy and ethical lives. He was the first to outline clearly what one is tempted to call the elementary scene of ideology, its zero-level, which consists in asserting the (nameless) authority of some substantial Tradition.” — Slavoj Zizek

Slavoj Zizek Quotes About Thinking

As someone who thinks a lot himself, Slavoj emphasizes thinking to a great extent. These quotes will make you think, too.

16. “Thinking begins when you ask really difficult questions.” — Slavoj Zizek

17. “I secretly think reality exists so we can speculate about it.” — Slavoj Zizek

18. “You can be an extreme materialist, thinking that economic development ultimately determines everything; then you are truly ideological.” — Slavoj Zizek

19. “The horror of Communism, Stalinism, is not that bad people do bad things — they always do. It’s that good people do horrible things thinking they are doing something great.” — Slavoj Zizek

20. “I almost stopped teaching entirely. The worst thing for me is contact with students. I like universities without students. And I especially hate American students. They think you owe them something. They come to you … Office hours!” — Slavoj Zizek

Slavoj Zizek Quotes About Love

Discover Slavoj Zizek’s profound insights on love that challenge conventional notions and offer thought-provoking perspectives on this complex, universal human emotion.

21. “The one measure of true love is: you can insult the other.” — Slavoj Zizek

22. “If you have reasons to love someone, you don’t love them.” — Slavoj Zizek

23. “When I really love someone, I can only show it by making aggressive and bad-taste remarks.” — Slavoj Zizek

24. “Love feels like a great misfortune, a monstrous parasite, a permanent state of emergency that ruins all small pleasures.” — Slavoj Zizek

25. “Love is what makes sex more than masturbation. If there is no love, even if you are really with a partner, you masturbate with a partner.” — Slavoj Zizek