The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern you life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

The right to know is like the right to live. It is fundamental and unconditional in its assumption that knowledge, like life, is a desirable thing.

How can you dare teach a man to read until you've taught him everything else first?

It is not pleasure that makes life worth living. It is life that makes pleasure worth having.

The plain working truth is that it is not only good for people to be shocked occasionally, but absolutely necessary to the progress of society that they should be shocked pretty often.

I'm one of the undeserving poor: that's what I am. Think of what that means to a man. It means that he's up agen middle class morality all the time.... What is middle class morality? Just an excuse for never giving me anything.