Any idea can be brought into the classroom if the point is to inquire into its structure, history, influence and so forth. But no idea belongs in the classroom if the point of introducing it is to recruit your students for the political agenda it may be thought to imply.

I do not support abortion rights. Although what I would support in this vexed area is not clear to me.

In general, higher education does not know how to speak for its interests. It offers a stance that is defensive, cowardly and likely to be ineffective.

We in universities are not in the democracy business. What we do, when we're doing it, is teach and learn.

The purpose of a good education is to show you that there are three sides to a two-sided story.

It is of no help to us that there is an absolute truth of the matter of things because unfortunately, none of us are in a position to say definitively what that is - although we all think that we are.

Language is not a handmaiden to perception; it is perception; it gives shape to what would otherwise be inert and dead.