The Religion of John Knowles

Occasionally verbose but always articulate, John Knowles delivered himself of the following dicta in an interview with TIME'S Ruth Galvin:

ON INDIVIDUALISM. "The great disjunction of the times, as we press toward equalization of access to vital services for all, and do this largely through taxation, is how are we simultaneously going to keep the idea in individuals' heads that they, individually, are going to make a difference? This is the major issue as numbers expand and there is a press toward the beneficent state. So we have the grand conflict between freedom, individualism, self-determination versus liberalism or equality, social justice, the good of the whole. Both are virtuous, but a healthy balance between them has never been more difficult to define and maintain."

ON SERVING OTHERS. "I was brought up in a strong puritan tradition, which valued hard work and self-reliance, combined with the Calvinist approach to life, that you should put back into it more than you take out. If you have a good education and don't have to worry about money all the time, you have a special obligation to serve others . . . Though I'm no churchgoer now, I still consider myself a religious man. I particularly like Paul Tillich's definition of religion as a state of being grasped with an infinite concern. Because I am grasped with an infinite concern about where we've been, where we're going to be in the future."

ON QUALITY CONTROL. "The review of quality and the utilization of doctors and hospitals should be done jointly--not only by professionals, but also by consumers, working together. They have nothing to fear from each other . . . That's not to say that I believe that professionals are beasts, or avaricious. It's just that they're human beings."

ON THE A.M.A. "I have no personal vendettas whatsoever with organized medicine. I'm far too busy for that. I have many friends in organized medicine and the medical societies, and I wish they would do much more, from the private sector, to resolve our pressing public issues."

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