"That fabulous polymath Samuel Johnson maintained that no man in his right mind ever read a book through from beginning to end."

“The relationship between a civilization's socio-economic structure and its culture is perhaps the most complicated of all problems for the sociologist.”

“Television, as the most "public" of media, has its limits.”

“The discussion of any society risks seduction by what is transient and tumultuous.”

“Every society seeks to establish a set of meanings through which people can relate themselves to the world.”

“Crime is a form of "unorganized" class struggle, and the lowest groups in the society have always committed a disproportionate number of crimes.”

“Religions grow out of the deepest needs of individuals sharing a common awakening, and are not created by "engineers of the soul.”