Sidney Hook Quotes

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

Sidney Hook

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

Sidney Hook

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

Sidney Hook

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.

Sidney Hook

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

Sidney Hook

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

Sidney Hook

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

Sidney Hook

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.

Sidney Hook

To silence criticism is to silence freedom.

Sidney Hook

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

Sidney Hook

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

Sidney Hook