We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.
Lionel TrillingOur culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.
Lionel TrillingWe who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us.
Lionel TrillingA theory of the middle class: that it is not to be determined by its financial situation but rather by its relation to government. That is, one could shade down from an actual ruling or governing class to a class hopelessly out of relation to government, thinking of government as beyond its control, of itself as wholly controlled by government. Somewhere in between and In gradations is the group that has the sense that gov't exists for it, and shapes its consciousness accordingly.
Lionel Trilling