E. P. Thompson Quotes

United Kingdom, Writer
February 3, 1924 – August, 28, 1993.

Edward Palmer Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993), usually cited as E. P. Thompson, was a British historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is probably best known today for his historical work on the British radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in particular The Making of the English Working Class (1963). He also published influential biographies of William Morris (1955) and (posthumously) William Blake (1993) and was a prolific journalist and essayist.

Also known as Historian, Socialist, Peace Activist

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

E. P. Thompson
- Two
- Once
- Decades
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
- Know
- Sweet
- Argument

There are no European voices at Geneva, there are no European voices at START.

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

E. P. Thompson
- Care
- Leadership
- Forced
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
- Peace
- Garden
- Movement
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
- World
- Important
- Decision
The talk about balance, nuclear balance, seems to me to be metaphysical and doesn't seem to be real at all.

E. P. Thompson
- Real
- Me
- Balance
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
- World
- Think
- Moment

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
- Political
- You
- Know
I am convinced that we are in a terminal process.

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
- Mind
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
I will hear no talk that there are no intermediate-range weapons on the NATO side.

E. P. Thompson
- Will
- Talk
- Weapons
The missiles come first, and the justifications come second.

E. P. Thompson
- First
- Come
- Second

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
- Life
- Up
- Truth
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