"Although Bertrand Russell suffered unpopularity in some quarters for his role as a political dissenter, he enjoyed that role immensely. There was more than a touch of exhibitionism in the riskless sit-downs of his last years when he made well-publicized gestures to 'Ban the Bomb' that were as futile as they were ill-advised. I once wondered aloud to him whether his temperamental bias toward nonconformity and dissent was an expression not so much of intellectual courage as of the aristocrat's disdain of the commoner and his desire to épater le bourgeois. He replied with disarming frankness: 'Hook, I think you have something there...'"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Philosophers from the United StatesJews from the United StatesHumanistsPeople from New York CityAgnostics from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sidney_Hook
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Sidney Hook
Sidney Hook (20 December 1902 – 12 July 1989) was a prominent New York intellectual and philosopher who championed pragmatism.
11 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Sidney Hook →
Related Quotes
"To silence criticism is to silence freedom."
"Anti-Semitism was rife in almost all varieties of socialism."
"Although there was much to criticize in American domestic and foreign policy, what struck me was the one-sidedness, u…"
"The United States was taxed with following a policy whose logic was "genocide" for helping South Vietnam deal with "a…"
"The grim consequences of … Hanoi's victory are now incontestable. The record of the last decade has brought a realiza…"
"I turned to Brecht and asked him why, if he felt the way he did about Jerome and the other American Communists, he ke…"
"It is better to be a live jackal than a dead lion--for jackals, not men. Men who have the moral courage to fight inte…"
"Herbert Marcuse made a lengthy, impassioned response. What good was the Voting Rights Act accomplishing, he said, sin…"
"As Adolf Berle, a fellow cold warrior, once remarked, 'Being vindicated by history is cold comfort.' For one thing, t…"
"I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its wo…"