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.

Time should make enemies and Life should make friends.

Journalism is the art of collecting varying kinds of information (commonly called news) which a few people possess and of transmitting it to a much larger number of people who are supposed to desire to share it.

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.)

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

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

Of necessity, we made the discovery that it is easier to turn poets into business journalists than to turn bookkeepers into writers.