The Idea Of The Paranoid Style As

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.

It Is A Part Of The Intellectual's Tragedy That The Things He Most Values About Himself And His Work Are Quite Unlike Those Society Values In Him.

The Utopia Of The Populists Was In The Past, Not In The Future. According To The Agrarian Myth, The Health Of The State Was Proportionate To The Degree To Which It Was Dominated By The Agricultural Class, And This Assumption Pointed To The Superiority Of An Earlier Age.

A University's Essential Character Is That Of Being A Center Of Free Inquiry And Criticism - A Thing Not To Be Sacrificed For Anything Else.

Whatever The Intellectual Is Too Certain Of, If He Is Healthily Playful, He Begins To Find Unsatisfactory. The Meaning Of His Intellectual Life Lies Not In The Possession Of Truth But In The Quest For New Uncertainties.