The adjective "political" in "political philosophy" designates not so much the subject matter as a manner of treatment; from this point of view, I say, "political philosophy" means primarily not the philosophic study of politics, but the political, or popular,… — Leo Strauss Copy Share Image
A conservative, I take it, is a man who despises vulgarity; but the argument which is concerned exclusively with calculations of success, and is… — Leo Strauss Copy Share Image
Men are constantly attracted and deluded by two opposite charms: the charm of competence which is engendered by mathematics and everything akin to mathematics,… — Leo Strauss Copy Share Image
“But what is the core of the political? Men killing men on the largest scale in broad daylight and with the greatest serenity.” — Leo Strauss Copy Share Image
“Todo ser humano y toda sociedad es lo que es en virtud de su máxima aspiración. La ciudad, si es sana, aspira no a las leyes que puede deshacer del mismo modo en que las hizo, sino a las leyes no escritas, la ley divina, los dioses de la ciudad. La ciudad debe trascenderse a sí misma. ...El factor más… — Leo Strauss Copy Share
“Only a great fool would call the new political science diabolic: it has no attributes peculiar to fallen angels. It is not even Machiavellian, for Machiavelli's teaching was graceful, subtle, and colorful. Nor is it Neronian. Nevertheless one may say of it that it fiddles while Rome burns. It is excused by two facts: it does not know that it… — Leo Strauss Copy Share
We somehow believe that our point of view is superior, higher than those of the greatest minds either because our point of view is that of our time, and our time, being later than the time of the greatest minds, can be presumed to be superior to their times; or else because we believe that each the greatest minds was… — Leo Strauss Copy Share
The emancipation of the scholars and scientists from philosophy is according to [Nietzsche] only a part of the democratic movement, i.e. of the emancipation… — Leo Strauss Copy Share Image
The most superficial fact regarding the 'Discourses,' the fact that the number of its chapters equals the number of books of Livy's 'History,' compelled… — Leo Strauss Copy Share Image
If the highest things are unknowable, then the highest capacity or virtue of man cannot be theoretical wisdom. — Leo Strauss Copy Share Image
History teaches us that a given view has been abandoned in favor of another by all men, or by all competent men, or perhaps by only the most vocal men; it does not teach us whether the change was sound or whether the rejected view deserved to be rejected. Only an impartial analysis of the view in question, an analysis… — Leo Strauss Copy Share
No bloody or unbloody change of society can eradicate the evil in man: as long as there will be men, there will be malice,… — Leo Strauss Copy Share Image
Liberal education, which consists in the constant intercourse with the greatest minds, is a training in the highest form of modesty. ... It is at the same time a training in boldness. ... It demands from us the boldness implied in the resolve to regard the accepted views as mere opinions, or to regard the average opinions as extreme opinions… — Leo Strauss Copy Share
![“The emancipation of the scholars and scientists from philosophy is according to [Nietzsche] only a part of the democratic movement, i.e. of the emancipation of the low from subordination to the high. ... The plebeian character of the contemporary scholar or scientist is due to the fact that he has…” quote by Leo Strauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/76a/leo-strauss-12446_character_the-emancipation-of-the-scholars-and-sci_389563.jpg)
