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 that is not dazzled by the victory or stunned by the defeat of the adherents of the view concerned - could teach us anything regarding the worth of the view and hence regarding the meaning of the historical change.
Leo StraussThe clarification of our political ideas insensibly changes into and becomes indistinguishable from the history of political ideas.
Leo StraussPhilosophizing means, then, to ascend from public dogma to essentially private knowledge.
Leo StraussEducation to perfect gentlemanship, to human excellence, liberal education consists in reminding oneself of human excellence, of human greatness.
Leo StraussEducation, they [philosophers] felt, is the only answer to the always pressing question, to the political question par excellence, of how to reconcile order which is not oppression with freedom which is not license.
Leo StraussThe belief that value judgments are not subject, in the last analysis, to rational control, encourages the inclination to make irresponsible assertions regarding right and wrong or good and bad. One evades discussion of serious issues by the simple device of passing them off as value problems, whereas, to say the least, many of these conflicts arose out of man's very agreement regarding values.
Leo Strauss