A 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.

Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony.

The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.

There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.

What marks the artist is his power to shape the material of pain we all have.

Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.

Youth is a time when we find the books we give up but do not get over.