"The country we live in is a laboratory. We have one experiment after another. Unfortunately, it is not a laboratory where no one gets hurt: some lives are enhanced, others are ruined. We have to view our society with concern and passion, and see what we can learn from each of our experiments. When we get upset and angry about politics — whether it is conservative, liberal, or whatever — we tend to think in terms of right and wrong, not what we can learn."

Charles A. Reich Literature See all quotes by Charles A. Reich →

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“A work of art is not valued because it changes itself for each person who views it, it retains its own integrity and thus means something unique and marvelous to those who see it.”

“We do not see it because we can not afford to-because the truth is too explosive.”

“Our history shows that what we must do is assert domination over the machine, to guide it so that it works for the values of our choice.”

“Marx saw exploitation in terms of the rewards of human labor, but we can see it in terms of all the values of our society.”

“The American dream was not, at least at the beginning, a rags-to-riches type of narrow materialism.”

“there is every reason to fear that the State is growing ever more powerful, more autonomous, more indifferent to its own inhabitants.”

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