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In the end, the real mystery, for one who reads the primary works of paranoid scholarship, is not how the United States has been brought to its present dangerous position but how it has managed to survive at all.

— Richard Hofstadter The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1964)

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More quotes by Richard Hofstadter

As with the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of truth is itself gratifying whereas the consummation often turns out to be elusive.

Intellectualism, though by no means confined to doubters, is often the sole piety of the skeptic.

Intellect is neither practical nor impractical; it is extra-practical.

Intellect needs to be understood not as some kind of claim against the other human excellences for which a fatally high price has to be paid, but rather as a complement to them without which they cannot be fully consummated.

The higher paranoid scholarship is nothing if not coherent — in fact the paranoid mind is far more coherent than the real world.

The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1964)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Richard Hofstadter (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.