Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind... War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people. When the creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects, when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs the root of art. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. Let the world go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today, at home and around the world! Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable. Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource. |