“I knew, of course, that Americans are embarked on a new direction in seeking solutions for their own health problems. But I had no idea of the strength and pervasiveness of this quest at all strata of society. It was inspiring to talk to people from all walks of life who had developed their own personal health agendas, expending enormous energy to find alternative treatments when they felt mainstream medicine had failed them by providing ineffective treatments or treatments that carried more risk than they wanted to take.”

Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 9 (p. 75)

Discourse 32, J. Cohoon and H. Crosby, trans. (1940), p. 181

Source: 1960s, The Art of the Soluble, 1967, p. 14.

"A Call for Prayer – and Action -- Against Violence in America" (2012)
Context: What, we wonder, can be done to prevent such unpredictable outbreaks of violence? No, we can’t always pinpoint when a specific individual will erupt in a spree of deadly violence. But it is just possible that we can begin to create a less violent society, a society in which nonviolent conflict reconciliation is a more widely-held value, a society in which individuals with serious mental health problems are more likely to be identified and more likely to receive needed treatment and care.

Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 98.
Collected Works

Washington Post, 1983 November 13.
On animal research and activism against it

2016, Remarks to the People of Cuba (March 2016)
Context: There’s still enormous problems in our society. But democracy is the way that we solve them. That's how we got health care for more of our people. That's how we made enormous gains in women’s rights and gay rights. That's how we address the inequality that concentrates so much wealth at the top of our society. Because workers can organize and ordinary people have a voice, American democracy has given our people the opportunity to pursue their dreams and enjoy a high standard of living.

"The Wet Dream Film Festival" (1971), p. 57
The Madwoman's Underclothes (1986)