Publishing is a business, but journalism never was and is not essentially a business. Nor is it a profession.

Not much longer shall we have time for reading lessons of the past. An inexorable present calls us to the defense of a great future.

I suggest that what we want to do is not to leave to posterity a great institution, but to leave behind a great tradition of journalism ably practiced in our time.

I became a journalist to come as close as possible to the heart of the world.

There are men who can write poetry, and there are men who can read balance sheets. The men who can read balance sheets cannot write.

To see life. To see the world. To watch the faces of the poor, and the gestures of the proud. To see strange things. Machines, armies, multitudes, and shadows in the jungle. To see, and to take pleasure in seeing. To see and be instructed. To see and be amazed. (Describing the powers of photography; written for the launch of LIFE Magazine, 1936.)

The world of the 20th century, if it is to come to life in any viability of health and vigor, must be to a significant degree an American century.