“Historians are interested in ideas not only because they influence societies, but because they reveal the societies that give rise to them.”

“The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.”

“To think that because those who wield power in society wield in the end that of government, therefore it is of no use to attempt to influence the constitution of the government by acting on opinion, is to forget that opinion is itself one of the greatest active social forces. One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.”

“The ego must be developed, not for its own sake, but because it is needed by society. If you are only interested in self-realisation then you cannot make a good painting. To do this you have to have thought about forming and about how ideas of forming stem from history.”

“I am passionate about everything in my life--first and foremost, passionate about ideas. And that's a dangerous person to be in this society, not just because I'm a woman, but because it's such a fundamentally anti-intellectual, anti-critical thinking society. --bell hooks”

“You say that this society will come to an end, because societies always have done so. I wonder whether they have ended because they were not really societies at all.”