Joseph Kauffman

“Propositions become either pure or impure, not true or false.”
― Mark Lilla, The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics

“I take no sides. I am interested in the shape of ideas. There is a wonderful sentence in Augustine: "Do not despair; one the thieves was saved. Do not presume; one of the thieves was damned." That sentence has a wonderful shape. It is the shape that matters.”
― Samuel Beckett

“Identity is not the future of the left. It is not a force hostile to neoliberalism. Identity is Reaganism for lefties.”
― Mark Lilla, The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics

“We didn’t want to be reminded of how little we counted, how quickly, simply, and anonymously death came. Even though my reason wanted the state of death, I was afraid like a virgin of the act. I would have liked death to come with due warning, so that I could prepare myself. For what? I didn’t know, nor how, except by taking a look around at the little I would be leaving.”
― Graham Greene, The Quiet American