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

The traditional educational theory is to the effect that the way to bring up children is to keep them innocent (i.e., believing in biological, political, and socioeconomic fairy tales) as long as possible ... that students should be given the best possible maps of the territories of experience in order that they may be prepared for life, is not as popular as might be assumed.

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

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.

We live in a highly competitive society, each of us trying to outdo the other in wealth, in popularity or social prestige, in dress, in scholastic grades or golf scores. One is often tempted to say that conflict, rather than cooperation, is the great governing principle of human life.

We should keep [the Panama Canal]. After all, we stole it fair and square.

If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it.