America is an open society, more open than any other in the world. People of every race, of every color, of every culture are welcomed here to create a new life for themselves and their families. And what do these people who enter into the American mainstream have in common? English, our shared common language.

Few people...have had much training in listening. The training of most oververbalized professional intellectuals is in the opposite direction. Living in a competitive culture, most of us are most of the time chiefly concerned with getting our own views across, and we tend to find other people's speeches a tedious interruption of the flow of our own ideas.

In the age of television, image becomes more important than substance.

It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.

How anybody dresses is indicative of his self-concept. If students are dirty and ragged, it indicates they are not interested in tidying up their intellects either.

Patriotic societies seem to think that the way to educate school children in a democracy is to stage bigger and better flag-saluting.

There is only one thing age can give you, and that is wisdom.