We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us. – Lionel Trilling
Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony. – Lionel Trilling
We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian. – Lionel Trilling
We are all ill: but even a universal sickness implies an idea of health. – Lionel Trilling
It is well to know something of the manners of various peoples, in order more sanely to judge our own, and that we do not think that everything against our modes is ridiculous, and against reason, as those who have seen nothing are accustomed to think. РRen̩ Descartes, Discourse on the Method, 1637 (translated)