There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build. Coach Graham worked in a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it: You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.

It's easy to be smart when you are parodying smart people.

until you got ice cream spilled on you, you’re not doing field work

The best gift an educator can give is to get somebody to become self reflective.

Engineering isn't about perfect solutions; it's about doing the best you can with limited resources.

You can always change you plan, but only if you have one.

Well, you can’t have just some of me, Jai,” I told her. “You appreciate the part of me that didn’t get angry because two ‘things’ we own got hurt. But the flip side of that is my belief that you don’t repair things if they still do what they’re supposed to do. The cars still work. Let’s just drive ’em.