To The Reactionary Ear Every Whispered Criticism

As With The Pursuit Of Happiness, The Pursuit Of Truth Is Itself Gratifying Whereas The Consummation Often Turns Out To Be Elusive.

One Of The Primary Tests Of The Mood Of A Society At Any Given Time Is Whether Its Comfortable People Tend To Identify, Psychologically, With The Power And Achievements Of The Very Successful Or With The Needs And Sufferings Of The Underprivileged.

It Is The Historic Glory Of The Intellectual Class Of The West In Modern Times That, Of All The Classes Which Could Be Called In Any Sense Privileged, It Has Shown The Largest And Most Consistent Concern For The Well-being Of The Classes Which Lie Below It In The Social Scale.

To The Zealot Overcome By His Piety And To The Journeyman Of Ideas Concerned Only With His Marketable Mental Skills, The Beginning And End Of Ideas Lies In Their Efficacy With Respect To Some Goal External To Intellectual Processes.

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.