henry Steele commager

“It is probably safe to say that over a long period of time, political morality has been as high as business morality.”

“No matter how many litanies we intone, we will not induce our people to obey laws that those in authority do not themselves obey.”

“The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion... In the long run it will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.”

“The university is the only institution in Western society whose business it is to search for and transmit truth regardless of all competing or conflicting pressures and demands; pressures for immediate usefulness, for social approval, pressures to serve the special interests of government, a class, a professional group, a race, a faith, even a nation.”

“What is the new loyalty? It is, above all, conformity.  It is the uncritical and unquestioning acceptance of America as it is... It rejects inquiry and unquestioning acceptance of America as it is... It rejects inquiry into the race question or socialized medicine, or public housing...regards as heinous any challenge to what is called the system of private enterprise, identifying that system with Americanism. It abandons evolution, repudiates the once popular concept of progress, and regards America as a finished product, perfect and complete.”