If you don't give anything, don't expect anything. Success is not coming to you, you must come to it.

Determination and perseverance move the world; thinking that others will do it for you is a sure way to fail.

I believe the more difficult a child is, the more I want that child. But I won't take a child until the parent brings him to us. So it is just the opposite - we get the ones that no one else will take. We get sawdust, and we have to make boards out of it.

I have discovered few learning disabled students in my three decades of teaching. I have, however, discovered many, many victims of teaching inabilities.

Until kids decide, 'I am a miracle. I am unique. There is no one else exactly like me,' they can never draw the conclusion, 'Because I'm a miracle, I will never harm another person who's a miracle like me.' In this slippery world, they all need something to hang on to.

I cannot change the world, but I do not have to conform.

What all good teachers have in common, however, is that they set high standards for their students and do not settle for anything less.