If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.

The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept.

What leaders have to remember is that somewhere under the somnolent surface is the creature that builds civilizations, the dreamer of dreams, the risk taker. And remembering that, the leader must reach down to the springs that never dry up, the ever-fresh springs of the human spirit.

One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.

We cannot have islands of excellence in a sea of slovenly indifference to standards.

The world loves talent but pays off on character.

The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursing his own education. This will not be a widely shared pursuit until we get over our odd conviction that education is what goes on in school buildings and nowhere else.