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

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do best.

Parents often brag about the amount of money spent per child, but I think, perhaps ironically, those great monies that are spent - I call it putting a band-aid on a hemorrhage.

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

I'm not one of those who say this is the way. I'm not that opinionated. I can only say this is my way. Even the $1,000 scholarship that my son could have gotten from the state of Illinois to go to college, we didn't want. I'd rather get out and work and have my children know that their money comes from their parents and we have to work for it.

One of the things that even wealthy children need is an education, and I think the problems I saw really have nothing to do with economics. So I was unhappy with what my own children were getting even in the better schools, and then I was seeing so many children here recruited for failure.