TEIXEIRA, Anísio. Carta a George S. Counts, S.l., 29 ago. 1963.
Localização do documento: Fundação Getúlio Vargas/CPDOC - Arquivo Anísio Teixeira -ATc 60.07.01.
Carta citada por Luís Viana Filho em Anísio Teixeira: a polêmica da educação. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1990. p.176.

August 29, 1963.

Dear George:

Your "Education and the Foundations of Human Freedom" reached me only last month here in Brasilia, our new capital, where I am acting as Rector of the University of Brasilia (by separate mail I am sending you its master-plan).
I read your lecture already twice and found you wrote a masterpiece on this cherished old theme never so difficult as in our present days to argue and to defend. We still have you and a few others to lead us in our permanent fight for the "highest form of government", but will not "the race...prove a walk-over for disaster"?
I was in London in 1946 when Wells died, and a common friend told me how desperate he was in his last months.
Ever since we have been on the defensive and only now there is some small hope of peaceful misunderstanding and competitive coexistence. But will it be peace? And will we march on for freedom or for some form of heavy and passive collective state of mind in our search not for liberty but for security?
As I believe you know, I spent last semester in the U.S. I was deeply impressed by the energy and force of American life. By the intensity of your passion for work. But there was a certain silence in the air, something I could not see clearly but only sense as heavier than lighter, as determinate but rather gloomy.
Your Horace Mann lecture gave me a new spirit, and as your old disciple I want to thank you for your word, for your message teaching us the human way. With my deep affection, great admiration and very best wishes which I beg to extend to Mrs. Counts,

Yours as ever,

Anísio Teixeira

Secretary General