One man interacting creatively with others can move the world.

The play of conflicting interests in a framework of shared purposes is the drama of a free society. It is a robust exercise, and often a noisy one. It is not for the faint-hearted, or the tidy-minded.

I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder that we could have tolerated anything so primitive.

The best kept secret in America today is that people would rather work hard for something they believe in than live a life of aimless diversion.

Some people may have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them. They achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly, by “doin' what comes naturally”; and they don't stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.

Whoever I am, or whatever I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach.

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