After all, if you believe that no one was ever corrupted by a book, you also have to believe that no one was ever improved by a book (or a play or a movie). You have to believe, in other words, that all art is morally trivial and that, consequently, all education is morally irrelevant. No one, not even a university professor, really believes that.

A neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality. A neoliberal is a liberal who's been mugged by reality but has refused to press charges.

Anyone who knows anything about journalism knows that reporters are rarely in a position to investigate anything. They lack the authority to subpoena witnesses, to cross-examine, to scrutinize official records. They are lucky to get their phone calls returned.

An intellectual may be defined as a man who speaks with general authority about a subject on which he has no particular competence.

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.

The enemy of liberal capitalism today is not so much socialism as nihilism.

People need religion. It's a vehicle for a moral tradition. A crucial role. Nothing can take its place.