20 Quotes & Sayings By Jacques Barzun

Jacques Barzun was born in New York City on April 18, 1907. He was educated at Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1931 with a dissertation on George Santayana. He taught at Columbia from 1931 to 1943, then spent the war years as a research assistant to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Read more

He returned to Columbia in 1946 as an associate professor of history, and in 1948 he became chairman of the History Department. In 1954 he was named Hemenway Professor of History, a position formerly held by Charles Beard, John Haynes Holmes, and Henry Steele Commager. After serving as dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 1964 to 1969, he became professor emeritus upon his retirement in 1970.

Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble,...
1
Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes. Jacques Barzun
Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for...
2
Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. Jacques Barzun
Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist...
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Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about people in the past are a form of injustice. Jacques Barzun
Bad writing, it is easily verified, has never kept scholarship...
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Bad writing, it is easily verified, has never kept scholarship from being published. Jacques Barzun
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What we ask of a writer in the first place is a unique voice. We ask for the rest later, and we may even pretend that it is only the later things we required -- no personal, individual, induplicable quality, just pure art. Jacques Barzun
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Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game and do it by watching first some high-school or small-town teams Jacques Barzun
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Whoever wants to know the hearts and minds of America had better learn baseball. Jacques Barzun
8
Art distills sensation and embodies it with enhanced meaning in memorable form - or else it is not art. Jacques Barzun
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The test and the use of man's education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind. Jacques Barzun
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In any assembly the simplest way to stop transacting business and split the ranks is to appeal to a principle. Jacques Barzun
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In any assembly the simplest way to stop the transacting of business and split the ranks is to appeal to a principle. Jacques Barzun
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Teaching is not a lost art but the regard for it is a lost tradition. Jacques Barzun
13
"Plain English" - everybody loves it demands it - from the other fellow. Jacques Barzun
14
The root difficulty in all cases was the state of being blind and deaf to words-- not seeing the words for the prose. Being adults, they had forgotten what every child understands, which is giving and taking a meaning is not automatic and inevitable Jacques Barzun
15
It seems a long time since the morning mail could be called correspondence. Jacques Barzun
16
In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. Jacques Barzun
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Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions. Jacques Barzun
18
If civilization has risen from the Stone Age, it can rise again from the Wastepaper Age. Jacques Barzun
19
Schools are not intended to moralize a wicked world, but to impart knowledge and develop intelligence, with only two social aims in mind: prepare to take on one's share in the world's work, and perhaps in addition, lend a hand in improving society, after schooling is done. Jacques Barzun