Rene Girard

It doesn't take much insight to realize that wars have been getting worse every time - worse from the point of view of the civilian, more and more destructive, more and more total.

Learning that we have a scapegoat is to lose it forever and to expose ourselves to mimetic conflicts with no possible resolution.

We are aware that globalization doesn't mean global friendship but global competition and, therefore, conflict. That doesn't mean we will all destroy each other, but it is no happy global village, either.

I believe that in intense conflict, far from becoming sharper, differences melt away.

What I call a mimetic crisis is a situation of conflict so intense that on both sides people act the same way and talk the same way even though, or because, they are more and more hostile to each other.

Terrorism is the vanguard of a general revenge against the West's wealth.

When we judge, we are always in a psychic space which is circular.

The sources of Islamism's strength include the fact that it is a response to the oppression of the Third World as a whole.

On September 11, people were shaken, but they quickly calmed down. There was a flash of awareness, which lasted a few fractions of a second. People could feel that something was happening. Then a blanket of silence covered up the crack in our certainty of safety.

Having a scapegoat means not knowing that we have one.

Instead of blaming victimization on the victims, the Gospels blame it on the victimizers. What the myths systematically hide, the Bible reveals.

When the whole world is globalized, you're going to be able to set fire to the whole thing with a single match.