“Tocqueville saw that the life of constant action and decision which was entailed by the democratic and businesslike character of American life put a premium upon rough and ready habits of mind, quick decision, and the prompt seizure of opportunities… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share Image
“purity of a sort is easily had where responsibilities are not assumed. The” — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
It is a part of the intellectual's tragedy that the things he most values about himself and his work are quite unlike those society… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
It has been our fate as a nation not to have ideologies but to be one. — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
“The truly creative mind is hardly ever so much alone as when it is trying to be sociable. The” — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
“They thought man was a creature of rapacious self-interest, and yet they wanted him to be free- free, in essence, to contend, to engage… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
It is a poor head that cannot find plausible reason for doing what the heart wants to do. — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
It is possible that the distinction between moral relativism and moral absolutism has sometimes been blurred because an excessively consistent practice of either leads… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
To be sick and helpless is a humiliating experience. Prolonged illness also carries the hazard of narcissistic self-absorption. — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
There has always been in our national experience a type of mind which elevates hatred to a kind of creed; for this mind, group… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
The intellectual's ... playfulness, in its various manifestations, is likely to seem to most men a perverse luxury; in the United States the play… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
“...the danger that American society as a whole will over-esteem intellect or assign it such a transcendent value as to displace other legitimate values… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
To be confronted with a simple and unqualified evil is no doubt a kind of luxury… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
“When one considers American history as a whole, it is hard to think of any very long period in which it could be said… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
If there is anything more dangerous to the life of the mind than having no independent commitment to ideas, it is having an excess… — Richard Hofstadter Copy Share
