Language is a unifying instrument which binds people together. When people speak one language they become as one, they become a society.

I believe we are being dishonest with language minority groups if we tell them they can take full part in American life without learning the English language.

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

If I spoke no English, my world would be limited to the Japanese-speaking community, and no matter how talented I was, I could never do business, seek employment or take part in public affairs outside that community.

In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.

The great thing about the United States is our ability to absorb foreign people and make them a part of us.

If everybody is rewarded just for being alive, you get the same sort of effect as you do when you reward every student just for being enrolled. You destroy not only education, you destroy society by giving A's to everyone. This is a philosophical consideration that bothers me very much as I sit in the United States Senate and see the great budget allocations going through.