Georges Bataille

French intellectual and literary figure

Georges Bataille was a renowned French philosopher and intellectual who explored fascinating topics like eroticism, mysticism, and the transgressive. His influential work spanned various disciplines, leaving a lasting impact on schools of thought like poststructuralism.

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About the Georges Bataille

Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataillewas a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, and poetry, explored such subjects as eroticism, mysticism, surrealism, and transgression. His work would prove influential on subsequent schools of philosophy and social theory, including poststructuralism.

Frequently Asked Questions

Georges Bataille was a French philosopher and intellectual who made significant contributions to fields like philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and art history.

Georges Bataille’s writing explored subjects such as eroticism, mysticism, surrealism, and transgression, and his work would prove influential on subsequent schools of philosophy and social theory, including poststructuralism.

Georges Bataille’s writing included essays, novels, and poetry, in which he explored a wide range of subjects.

Georges Bataille was born on September 10, 1897, in France.

Georges Bataille worked in various disciplines, including philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and the history of art.

Georges Bataille’s work would prove influential on subsequent schools of philosophy and social theory, including poststructuralism.

Georges Bataille passed away on July 8, 1962.

14 Quotes by Georges Bataille

  1. 1.

    Each of us is incomplete compared to someone else – an animal’s incomplete compared to a person… and a person compared to God, who is complete only to be imaginary.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  2. 2.

    Naturally, love’s the most distant possibility.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  3. 3.

    Life has always taken place in a tumult without apparent cohesion, but it only finds its grandeur and its reality in ecstasy and in ecstatic love.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  4. 4.

    To place oneself in the position of God is painful: being God is equivalent to being tortured. For being God means that one is in harmony with all that is, including the worst. The existence of the worst evils is unimaginable unless God willed them.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  5. 5.

    The anguish of the neurotic individual is the same as that of the saint. The neurotic, the saint are engaged in the same battle. Their blood flows from similar wounds. But the first one gasps and the other one gives.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  6. 6.

    Crime is a fact of the human species, a fact of that species alone, but it is above all the secret aspect, impenetrable and hidden. Crime hides, and by far the most terrifying things are those which elude us.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  7. 7.

    Pleasure only starts once the worm has got into the fruit, to become delightful happiness must be tainted with poison.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  8. 8.

    A judgment about life has no meaning except the truth of the one who speaks last, and the mind is at ease only at the moment when everyone is shouting at once and no one can hear a thing.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  9. 9.

    Sacrifice is nothing other than the production of sacred things.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  10. 10.

    Eroticism is assenting to life even in death.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  11. 11.

    I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  12. 12.

    Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one’s rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  13. 13.

    The essence of morality is a questioning about morality; and the decisive move of human life is to use ceaselessly all light to look for the origin of the opposition between good and evil.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure

  14. 14.

    The sovereign being is burdened with a servitude that crushes him, and the condition of free men is deliberate servility.

    Georges Bataille

    French intellectual and literary figure