Sidney Hook Quotes

Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.

Tolerance always has limits - it cannot tolerate what is itself actively intolerant.

To silence criticism is to silence freedom.

I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature.

The easiest rationalization for the refusal to seek the truth is the denial that truth exists.

Fear of death has been the greatest ally of tyranny past and present.

The difference between science and religion is that the former wishes to get rid of mysteries whereas the latter worships them.

Nonetheless, it still remains true that as a set of cognitive beliefs, religious doctrines constitute a speculative hypothesis of an extremely low order of probability.

Before impugning an opponent's motives, even when they legitimately may be impugned, answer his arguments.

In contrast to totalitarianism, democracy can face and live with the truth about itself.

Students rarely disappoint teachers who assure them in advance that they are doomed to failure.

To serve the public interest is not the same as being a servant of public opinion.

Those who say that life is worth living at any cost have already written an epitaph of infamy, for there is no cause and no person that they will not betray to stay alive.

Stupidity is sometimes the greatest of historical forces.

No one who accepts the sovereignty of truth can be a foot soldier in a party or movement. He will always find himself out of step.

Life has meaning for anyone who takes an interest in it.

Idealism, alas, does not protect one from ignorance, dogmatism, and foolishness.

The mob that hails the man on horseback, the Caesars and conquering heroes, does not retain its freedoms for long.

Noam Chomsky skittles and skithers all over the political landscape to distract the reader’s attention from the plain truth.

Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value.

Religious freedom in an open society has the best prospects of flourishing to the extent that it expresses itself as freedom of religious inquiry.

[A]nti-Semitism was rife in almost all varieties of socialism.

The next time anyone asks you "What is Bertrand Russell's philosophy?" the correct answer is "What year, please?"

To deny me the right to err is therefore to deny me the right to believe.

If one shoots at a king, one must not miss.

Wisdom is an affair of values, and of value judgments. It is intelligent conduct of human affairs.

Wisdom is a kind of knowledge. It is knowledge of the nature, career, and consequences of human values.