To push for excellence today without continuing to push for access for less privileged students is to undermine the crucial but incomplete gains that have been made. Equity and excellence cannot be divided.

As I watched my grandfather work with people who were impoverished, I began to understand that to be truly human, one must serve.

A poor surgeon hurts one person at a time. A poor teacher hurts 130.

An incompetent teacher is even worse than an incompetent surgeon because a surgeon can only cut up one person at a time.

Literature is an inquiry into the deepest yearnings of the human spirit.

Research must continue to be the centerpiece of intellectual life, and our commitment to research must grow, because our problems are growing.

Book CoverTo have people who are well informed but not constrained by conscience is conceivably, the most dangerous outcome of education possible. Indeed it could be argued that ignorance is better than unguided intelligence, for the most dangerous people are those who have knowledge without a moral framework.