We need more than individual value systems; we need a shared vision. A nation is held together by shared values, shared beliefs, shared attitudes. That is what enables a people to maintain a cohesive society despite the tensions of daily life. That is what enables them to rise above the conflicts that plague any society.

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

Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.

Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather.

The hallmark of our age is the tension between aspirations and sluggish institutions.

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.

An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher.