It Is Ironic That The United States

We Have Learned So Well How To Absorb Novelty That Receptivity Itself Has Turned Into A Kind Of Tradition- "the Tradition Of The New." Yesterdays Avant-garde Experiment Is Today's Chic And Tomorrows Cliche.

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.

If There Is Anything More Dangerous To The Life Of The Mind Than Having No Independent Commitment To Ideas, It Is Having An Excess Of Commitment To Some Special And Constricting Idea.

To Be Sick And Helpless Is A Humiliating Experience. Prolonged Illness Also Carries The Hazard Of Narcissistic Self-absorption.

The Intellectual's ... Playfulness, In Its Various Manifestations, Is Likely To Seem To Most Men A Perverse Luxury; In The United States The Play Of The Mind Is Perhaps The Only Form Of Play That Is Not Looked Upon With The Most Tender Indulgence. His Piety Is Likely To Seem Nettlesome, If Not Actually Dangerous. And Neither Quality Is Considered To Contribute Very Much To The Practical Business Of Life.