Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony. – Lionel Trilling
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
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
There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination. – Lionel Trilling