The sole justification of teaching, of the school itself, is that the student comes out of it able to do something he could not do before. I say do and not know, because knowledge that doesn't lead to doing something new or doing something better is not knowledge at all.

Bad writing, it is easily verified, has never kept scholarship from being published.

Boredom and fatigue are great historical forces.

Democracy, to maintain itself, must repeatedly conquer every cell and corner of the nation. How many of our public institutions and private businesses, our schools, hospitals, and domestic hearths are in reality little fascist states where freedom of speech is more rigorously excluded than vermin?

The educated man had throughout the ages found a way to covert passionate activity into silent and motionless pleasure. He can sit still in a room and not perish.

Above all, do not talk yourself out of good ideas by trying to expound them at haphazard meetings.

Speech, after all, is in some measure an expression of character, and flexibility in its use is a good way to tell your friends from the robots.