Ideals are an imaginative understanding of that which is desirable in that which is possible.

Robinson Crusoe, the self-sufficient man, could not have lived in New York city.

The facts we see depend on where we are placed and the habits of our eyes.

A state is absolute in the sense which I have in mind when it claims the right to a monopoly of all the force within the community, to make war, to make peace, to conscript life, to tax, to establish and disestablish property, to define crime, to punish disobedience, to control education, to supervise the family, to regulate personal habits, and to censor opinions. The modern state claims all of these powers, and, in the matter of theory, there is no real difference in the size of the claim between communists, fascists, and Democrats.

True opinions can prevail only if the facts to which they refer are known; if they are not known, false ideas are just as effective as true ones, if not a little more effective.

A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. ... A great society is simply a big and complicated urban society.

To understand is not only to pardon, but in the end to love.