There Is One Thing A Professor Can

The First Discipline Modernity's Originators Imposed Upon Themselves Was That Of Self-restraint, Learning To Live With Vulgarity. Their High Expectations For Effectiveness Were Made Possible By Low Expectations Of What Was To Be.

Sycophancy Toward Those Who Hold Power Is A Fact In Every Regime, And Especially In A Democracy, Where, Unlike Tyranny, There Is An Accepted Principle Of Legitimacy That Breaks The Inner Will To Resist.... Flattery Of The People And Incapacity To Resist Public Opinion Are The Democratic Vices, Particularly Among Writers, Artists, Journalists And Anyone Else Who Is Dependent On An Audience.

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Property Were Just What Aristotle Did Not Talk About. They Are The Conditions Of Happiness; But The Essence Of Happiness, According To Aristotle, Is Virtue. So The Moderns Decided To Deal With The Conditions And To Let Happiness Take Care Of Itself.

Openness, As Currently Conceived, Is A Way Of Making Surrender To Whatever Is Most Powerful, Or Worship Of Vulgar Success, Look Principled.

This Nation's Impulse Is Toward The Future, And Tradition Seems More Of A Shackle To It Than An Inspiration.