"If there is anything more dangerous to the life of the mind than having no independent commitment to ideas, it is having an excess of commitment to some special and constricting idea."

--

Source : Richard Hofstadter (2012). “Anti-Intellectualism in American Life”, p.29, Vintage

Richard Hofstadter

#Education Quotes #Independent Quotes #Commitment Quotes

“I couldn't care less what anyone's 'perception' of me is. I'm too long in the tooth to care.”
“The great men of a nation reach out to all mankind. They are unifying, not divisive; internationally conciliating and still great nationally.”
“Our reverence for workaholism has produced corporate leaders who believe they don't need sleep, and neither should anyone else.”
“A: The soul wanders in the dark, until it finds love. And so, wherever our love goes, there we find our soul. Q: It always happens? A: If we're lucky. And if we let ourselves be blind. Q: Instead of watching out? A: Instead of always watching out.”

Source : Mary Zimmerman, David R. Slavitt (2002). “Metamorphoses: A Play”, p.76, Northwestern University Press
“I always knew the woman I wanted to be.”
“When I returned, everything was different. Everything was calm, and I felt very clean. Everything was in order. Everything was as it should be. I had a secret. It was a guilty secret, certainly. But it was MY secret. I had something to hold on to. It was company. It kept me calm. It filled me up and emptied me out.”
“The fact I want...no, I need for us to be exclusive until we part ways when we head off to college”
“Being outraged about two men or two women, it requires absolutely no work on the ground. So you can be outraged and you can be an armchair activist, engage in nothing and just simply get on the microphone and say, "I don't believe in X, Y, and Z, and it's terrible," and you can call them names.”

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