The idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant.
Richard HofstadterIf for every error and every act of incompetence one can substitute an act of treason, many points of fascinating interpretation are open to the paranoid imagination.
Richard HofstadterA university's essential character is that of being a center of free inquiry and criticism - a thing not to be sacrificed for anything else.
Richard HofstadterIt is a poor head that cannot find plausible reason for doing what the heart wants to do.
Richard Hofstadter