Irving Howe Quote

The most glorious vision of the intellectual life is still that which is loosely called humanist: the idea of a mind committed yet dispassionate, ready to stand alone, curious, eager, skeptical. The banner of critical independence, ragged and torn though it may be, is still the best we have.

Steady work: essays in the politics of democratic radicalism, 1953-1966 (ed. Mariner Books, 1966)