Neiman's book is written with considerable flair, as many critics have already noted, but it possesses a far rarer and more valuable quality: moral seriousness. Her argument builds a powerful emotional force, a sense of deep inevitability. . . . It is not often that a work of such dark conclusions has felt so hopeful and brave.

Tyranny is abhorrent, freedom benefits all, whereas violence benefits no one for long.

Paradoxically, the problems of politics often arise not in the form of a problem of scarcity, but as one of abundance.

How doe we create the world we want, rather than a world that just happens to us?

Socrates was likewise right that pissing people off is how we first, and maybe best, go about the business of provoking thought.

All social space is suffused with political meanings and agendas, the very stones and walls a kind of testament to the ongoing struggles for liberation and justices.

I hold to the idea that civility, understood as the willingness to engage in public discourse, is the first virtue of citizens.