It is of the essence of traditions that they cover or conceal their humble foundations by erecting impressive edifices on them. - Leo Strauss

To avert the danger [posed by theory] to life, Nietzsche could choose one of two ways: he could insist on the strictly esoteric character of the theoretical analysis of life—that is, restore the Platonic notion of the noble delusion—or else he could deny the possibility of theory proper and so conceive of thought as essentially subservient to, or dependent on, life or fate... If not Nietzsche himself, at any rate his successors [Heidegger] adopted the second alternative.

Political philosophy has lost its credibility in proportion as politics itself has become more philosophic than ever in a sense.

It is as absurd to expect members of philosophy departments to be philosophers as it is to expect members of art departments to be artists.