Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise... specialized competence and success are all that they can imagine.

A serious life means being fully aware of the alternatives, thinking about them with all the intensity one brings to bear on life-and-death questions, in full recognition that every choice is a great risk with necessary consequences that are hard to bear.

The students [of the 60's] substituted conspicuous compassion for their parents' conspicuous consumption.

The self is the modern substitute for the soul.

The facile economic and psychological debunking of the theoretical life cannot do away with its irreducible beauties.

This nation's impulse is toward the future, and tradition seems more of a shackle to it than an inspiration.

Education is not sermonizing to children against their instincts and pleasures, but providing a natural continuity between what they feel and what they can and should be.