The importance of these [college] years for an American cannot be overestimated. They are civilization's only chance to get to him.
Allan BloomWe are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished.
Allan BloomThe most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.
Allan BloomOpenness, as currently conceived, is a way of making surrender to whatever is most powerful, or worship of vulgar success, look principled.
Allan Bloom