“Coming to terms with the suffering of others has never meant looking away from our own.”

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 64

TED Talk http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_ebert_remaking_my_voice.html (March 2011)
Context: It is human nature to look away from illness. We don't enjoy a reminder of our own fragile mortality. That's why writing on the Internet has become a life-saver for me. My ability to think and write have not been affected. And on the Web, my real voice finds expression.

Source: Hainish Cycle, The Telling (2000), Ch. 2, §2 (p. 32)

The Child from the Sea (1970), Book 2, Chapter 1.5

Speech to the Empire Rally of Youth at the Royal Albert Hall (18 May 1937), quoted in Service of Our Lives (1937), pp. 162-163.
1937
Context: The twenty post-War years have shown that war does not settle the account. There is a balance brought forward. When emancipation is achieved a new slavery may begin. The moment of victory may be the beginning of defeat. The days which saw the framing of the League of Nations saw the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Should both be entered on the credit side? Twenty years ago we should all have said, "Yes"; to-day the reply would be doubtful, for both have belied the hopes of mankind and given place to disillusion. Freedom for common men, which was to have been the fruit of victory, is once more in jeopardy in our own land because it has been taken away from the common men of other lands.

Source: 1990s, Fighting for the Future: Will America Triumph? (1999), p. 51

Source: 1920s, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), p. 1

Marat, act 1, scene 13 (p. 28)
Marat/Sade (1963)