The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither read more

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither accorded him a superior status to sustain his confidence nor made it easy for him to acquire an unquestioned sense of social usefulness. For he derives his sense of usefulness mainly from directing, instructing, and planning- from minding other people's business- and is bound to feel superfluous and neglected where people believe themselves competent to manage individual and communal affairs, and are impatient of supervision and regulation. A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.

I was known as the chief grave robber of my state.

I was known as the chief grave robber of my state.

The art of creation is older than the art of killing.

The art of creation is older than the art of killing.

It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.

It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.

Politics are about power; we cannot evade that truth or its consequences. We dream of a better world but it read more

Politics are about power; we cannot evade that truth or its consequences. We dream of a better world but it is in Utopia- that is, nowhere.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] read more

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

I met someone on the street who said wasn't it great that we're going to have a movie star for read more

I met someone on the street who said wasn't it great that we're going to have a movie star for president, that it was so Pop, and (laughs) when you think about it like that, it is great, it's so American.

These people have served a longer sentence than some people who have committed murder.

These people have served a longer sentence than some people who have committed murder.

Commencement speakers have a good deal in common with grandfather clocks: Standing usually some six feet tall, typically ponderous in read more

Commencement speakers have a good deal in common with grandfather clocks: Standing usually some six feet tall, typically ponderous in construction, more traditional than functional, their distinction is largely their noisy communication of essentially commonplace information.