7 Quotes & Sayings By Leonard Sax

Leonard Sax is the author of the best-selling book Why People Don't Live Anymore in America. He is a public policy analyst and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. In the 1980s, he was a policy adviser to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee Read more

His other books include "The New Fight Over Free Speech," "Culture and Capitalism," and the forthcoming "Why the Worst Get on Top." He is a contributing editor of City Journal, a weekly political magazine published by The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. At various times, he has been a director of the Pioneer Institute, the Franklin & Marshall College Foundation, and the Institute for Humane Studies, and has been a Board Member of both The Heritage Foundation and the National Tax Limitation Foundation. He received his Ph.D.

from Columbia University.

1
If we fail to provide boys with pro-social models of the transition to adulthood, they may construct their own. In some cases, gang initiation rituals, street racing, and random violence may be the result. Leonard Sax
2
By exempting your child from all chores, as many affluent American families now do, you are sending the message, "Your time is too valuable to be spent on menial tasks, " which easily morphs into the unintended message "You are too important to do menial tasks." And that unintended message puffs up the bloated self-esteem that now characterizes many American kids. Leonard Sax
3
Turn off the device and take your child for a walk through the woods or on a hike up a mountain. Go on a camping trip. Late at night, when it's absolutely dark, take your child's hand and ask her to look up at the stars. Talk with her about the vastness of space and the tininess of our planet in the universe. That's reality. That's perspective. Leonard Sax
4
Defining yourself in terms of how you rank is always dangerous and ultimately immature. It doesn't matter whether the rank has to do with your grades, your weight or where you finished in the 800 meter race. Becoming a mature adult means, among other things, that you define yourself relative to your own potential, not relative somebody else's standard. Leonard Sax
5
Quoting an experienced school counselor: "You can't change a bully into a flower child, but you can change him into a knight. Leonard Sax
6
The destructive effects of video games are not on boys' cognitive abilities or their reaction times, but on their motivation and their connectedness with the real world. Leonard Sax