The most promising words ever written on the maps of human knowledge are terra incognita, unknown territory.

In the small town each citizen had done something in his own way to build the community. The town booster had a vision of the future which he tried to fulfill. The suburb dweller by contrast started with the future

. . . the messiness of experience, that may be what we mean by life.

Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.

Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.

The most important lesson of American history is the promise of the unexpected. None of our ancestors would have imagined settling way over here on this unknown continent. So we must continue to have society that is hospitable to the unexpected, which allows possibilities to develop beyond our own imaginings.

Historians will not fail to note that a people who could spend $300 billion on defense refused to spend a tiny fraction of that total to keep their libraries open in the evening.