I believed that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general.

Being hopeful is more important than being realistic. For reality is colored by our perceptions, opinions, and the ever fragile human emotions. But hope has the power to elevate us. Hope turns our eyes away from the visible and allows us to see the miracle that we need, while it is still far off.

Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

Until the deep conflicts of nations and classes which infect our world have been resolved, it is hardly to be expected that mankind will return to a rational habit of mind.

The difficulty is that so long as unreason prevails, a solution of our troubles can only be reached by chance; for while reason, being impersonal, makes universal cooperation possible, unreason, since it represents private passions, makes strife inevitable. It is for this reason that rationality, in the sense of an appeal to a universal and impersonal standard of truth, is of supreme importance to the well-being of the human species.

To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true.

There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a person who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.

Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.

Passing tests doesn't begin to compare with searching and inquiring and pursuing topics that engage us and excite us. That's far more significant than passing tests and, in fact, if that's the kind of educational career you're given the opportunity to pursue, you will remember what you discovered.

There have been many measures taken to try to turn the educational system towards more control, more indoctrination, more vocational training, imposing a debt, which traps students and young people into a life of conformity…

That's the exact opposite of [what] traditionally comes out of The Enlightenment. And there's a constant struggle between those. In the colleges, in the schools, do you train for passing tests, or do you train for creative inquiry?