Paul Lazarsfeld

“It is not so much that he was an American sociologist... as it was that he determined what American sociology would be... What made Paul unique was not his involvement with ideas or his involvement with people, but his ability to stir the two together.”

“[My goal] is to produce Paul Lazarsfelds.”

“Matters often look bad, but somehow they always stop short of being disastrous. True, as in other fields, especially in social legislation, it was often an accidental event which triggered an improvement. But this would not have happened if a continuous stream of criticism had not kept us prepared to take advantage of such opportunities. It is the tragic story of the cultural crusader in a mass society that he cannot win, but we would be lost without him.”

“I have always stressed that methodology is intuition reconstructed in tranquility.”

“In politics, familiarity doesn't breed contempt: it breeds votes.”

“Obviously something is wrong with the entire argument of "obviousness".”