Show me a man who claims he is objective and I'll show you a man with illusions.

Time should make enemies and Life should make friends.

Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.

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.

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.

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