"If there is an implicit agreement from the top down that excellence always comes first, then the primary criteria for judging ideas will always be excellence—not who talks the loudest or blows the most smoke." (p. 244)
"It may help the reader to know what my own vantage point is. I am concerned with the social context in which excellence may survive or be smothered. I am concerned with the fate of excellence in our society." (p. 11)