Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.

The heart of the matter is that some people like to cause injury or death to living things. And many of those who do not are indifferent to those who do.

All men - whether they go by the name of Americans or Russians or Chinese or British or Malayans or Indians or Africans - have obligations to one another that transcend their obligations to their sovereign societies.

Words have to be crafted, not sprayed. They need to be fitted together with infinite care.

Progress begins with the belief that what is necessary is possible.

Education tends to be diagrammatic and categorical, opening up no sluices in the human imagination on the wonder of the beauty of our unique estate in the cosmos. Little wonder that it becomes so easy for our young to regard human hurt casually or to be uninspired by the magic of sensitivity.

The one thing I have learned about editing over the years is that you have to edit and publish out of your own tastes, enthusiasms, and concerns, and not out of notions or guesswork about what other people might like to read.