Dont teach my boy poetry, an English mother recently wrote the Provost of Harrow. Dont teach my boy poetry; he is going to stand for Parliament. Well, perhaps she was rightbut if more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place to live on this Commencement Day of 1956.

Last year, more Americans went to symphonies than went to baseball games. This may be viewed as an alarming statistic, but I think that both baseball and the country will endure.

Israel was not created in order to disappear. Israel will endure and flourish.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

Only in the case of the Negro has the melting pot failed to bring a minority into the full stream of American life.

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.

The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.