[F]or a social theorist ignorance is more excusable than vagueness. Other investigators can easily show I am wrong if I am sufficiently precise. They will have much more difficulty showing by investigation what, precisely, I...

I can’t be friends with a man who blows hot and cold with the same breath.

a story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes.

Spiritual activity, education, civilization, culture, the idea are all vague, indefinite concepts, under the banner of which it is quite convenient to use words that have a still less clear meaning and therefore can easily...

If you can’t be kind, at least be vague.

For remember that in general we don’t use language according to strict rules– it hasn’t been taught to us by means of strict rules, either. We, in our discussions on the other hand, constantly compare...