The truth is, when all is said and done, one does not teach a subject, one teaches a student how to learn it.

It is always some illusion that creates disillusion, especially in the young, for whom the only alternative to perfection is cynicism.

Let us face a pluralistic world in which there are no universal churches, no single remedy for all diseases, no one way to teach or write or sing, no magic diet, no world poets, and no chosen races, but only the wretched and wonderfully diversified human race.

Above all, the ability to feel the force of an argument apart from the substance it deals with is the strongest weapon against prejudice.

The ascetic is often a sensualist who has reached the limit of his capacity.

History, like a vast river, propels logs, vegetation, rafts, and debris; it is full of live and dead things, some destined for resurrection; it mingles many waters and holds in solution invisible substances stolen from distant soils.

In a large university, there are as many deans and executive heads as there are schools and departments. Their relations to one another are intricate and periodic; in fact, "galaxy" is too loose a term: it is a planetarium of deans with the President of the University as a central sun. One can see eclipses, inner systems, and oppositions.