There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure-all your life.
John W. GardnerThe 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.
John W. GardnerIt is one of the ironies of history that reformers so often misjudge the consequences of their reforms.
John W. GardnerSome people seem to believe that for each problem there is a solution readily available - a solution that can be promptly achieved by passing a law and voting some money. I think of this as the vending machine concept of social change. Put a coin in the machine and out comes a piece of candy. If there is a social problem, pass a law and out comes a solution.
John W. GardnerSome people may have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them. They achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly, by โdoin' what comes naturallyโ; and they don't stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.
John W. Gardner