What is often being argued, it seems to me, in the idea of nature is the idea of man; and this not only generally, or in ultimate ways, but the idea of man in society, indeed the ideas of kinds of societies.

The idea of nature contains, though often unnoticed, an extraordinary amount of human history.

The real dividing line between things we call work and the things we call leisure is that in leisure, however active we may be, we make our own choices and our own decisions. We feel for the time being that our life is our own.

To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair inevitable.

It wasn't idealism that made me, from the beginning, want a more secure and rational society. It was an intellectual judgment, to which I still hold. When I was young its name was socialism. We can be deflected by names. But the need was absolute, and is still absolute.

Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language.

A contrast between country and city, as fundamental ways of life, reaches back into classical times.