On a very rough-and-ready basis we might define an eccentric as a man who is a law unto himself, and a crank as one who, having determined what the law is, insists on laying it down to others. An eccentric puts ice cream on steak simply because he likes it; should a crank do so, he would endow the act with moral grandeur and straightaway denounce as sinners (or reactionaries) all who failed to follow suit. Cranks, at their most familiar, are a sort of peevish prophets, and it's not enough that they should be in the right; others must also be in the wrong.

One of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame, we have killed off so much real shame as well.

For tens of millions of people [television] has become habit-forming, brain-softening, taste-degrading.

Someone who gossips well has a reputation for being good company or even a wit, never for being a gossip.

In an automobile civilization, which was one of constant motion and activity, there was almost no time to think; in a television one, there is small desire.

The American Way is so restlessly creative as to be essentially destructive; the American Way is to carry common sense itself almost to the point of madness.

The materialistic idealism that governs American life, that on the one hand makes a chariot of every grocery wagon, and on the other a mere hitching post of every star, lets every man lead a very enticing double life.