Leo Strauss

The modern project is to conquer nature, but we forget to conquer ourselves.

In a letter to Alexandre Kojève: 'The future is not what it used to be.'

Plato's Republic is not a blueprint, but a provocation to think.

The crisis of modernity is the crisis of reason itself.

We learn more from our enemies than from our friends.

The good life is the life of contemplation.

Tyranny is the perversion of rule by one for the common good.

Philosophy begins in wonder, but ends in silence.

The Bible and philosophy are in tension, yet both seek the divine.

In an interview: 'Straussians read between the lines because that's where the truth is.'

The relativism of the moderns leads to nihilism.

Aristotle teaches that man is a political animal, but also a philosophical one.

Esoteric writing protects the philosopher from persecution.

The pursuit of truth requires courage in the face of opinion.

In a speech: 'Democracy is the regime that does not know what it wants.'

The ancients understood virtue; the moderns, utility.

To a student: 'Read slowly, for the text speaks only once.'

Xenophon's silence is more eloquent than his words.

The meaning of life is found in the question, not the answer.

Hobbes replaced the fear of God with the fear of death.