All Forms Of Tampering With Human Beings,

The Most Passionate, Consistent, Extreme And Implacable Enemy Of The Enlightenment And ... All Forms Of Rationalism ... Was Johann Georg Hamann. His Influence, Direct And Indirect, Upon The Romantic Revolt Against Universalism And Scientific Method ... Was Considerable And Perhaps Crucial.

The Underlying Assumption That Human Nature Is Basically The Same At All Times, Everywhere, And Obeys Eternal Laws Beyond Human Control, Is A Conception That Only A Handful Of Bold Thinkers Have Dared To Question.

The History Of Society Is The History Of The Inventive Labors That Man Alter Man, Alter His Desires, Habits, Outlook, Relationships Both To Other Men And To Physical Nature, With Which Man Is In Perpetual Physical And Technological Metabolism.

Few Things Have Done More Harm Than The Belief On The Part Of Individuals Or Groups (or Tribes Or States Or Nations Or Churches) That He Or She Or They Are In Sole Possession Of The Truth: Especially About How To Live, What To Be And Do - And That Those Who Differ From Them Are Not Merely Mistaken, But Wicked Or Mad: And Need Restraining Or Suppressing.

The Trouble With Academics And Commentators Is That They Care More About Whether Ideas Are Interesting Than Whether They Are True.