1
Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.John W. Gardner
2
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.John W. Gardner
3
When one may pay out over two million dollars to presidential and Congressional campaigns, the U.S. government is virtually up for sale.John W. Gardner
5
We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure all your life.John W. Gardner
6
The world loves talent but pays off on character.John W. Gardner
7
It is not easy to be crafty and winsome at the same time, and few accomplish it after the age of six.John W. Gardner
8
Art gropes it stalks like a hunter lost in the woods listening to itself and to everything around it unsure of itself waiting to pounce.John W. Gardner
9
John Milton called his school Christ College 'a stony-hearted stepmother'. The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his education.John W. Gardner
10
One of the reasons mature people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.John W. Gardner
11
History never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy and it always feels uncomfortable.John W. Gardner
12
To sensible men every day is a day of reckoning.John W. Gardner
13
If one defines the term 'dropout' to mean a person who has given up serious effort to meet his responsibilities then every business office government agency golf club and university faculty would yield its quota.John W. Gardner
14
It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.John W. Gardner
15
If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.John W. Gardner
16
One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.John W. Gardner
17
True happiness involves the full use of one's power and talents.John W. Gardner
18
History never looks like history when you are living through it.John W. Gardner
19
Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage.John W. Gardner
20
For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred.John W. Gardner
21
If you don't give your kid freedom to make choices with money, including stupid choices, he'll make plenty when he gets to college.John W. Gardner
22
Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community.John W. Gardner
23
The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.John W. Gardner
24
Some people strengthen the society just by being the kind of people they are.John W. Gardner