Historical determinism is a recipe for political quietism.

The role of the intellectual, so it is said, is to speak truth to power. Noam Chomsky has dismissed this pious tag on two grounds. For one thing, power knows the truth already; it is just busy trying to conceal it. For another, it is not those in power who need the truth, but those they oppress.

I say that virtue is really all about enjoying yourself, living fully; but of course it is far from obvious what living fully actually means.

Like all the best radical positions, then, mine is a thoroughly traditionalist one.

The Kantian imperative to have the courage to think for oneself has involved a contemptuous disregard for the resources of tradition and an infantile view of authority as inherently oppressive.

When one emphasizes, as Jacques Derrida once remarked, one always overemphasizes.

I value my Catholic background very much. It taught me not to be afraid of rigorous thought, for one thing.