Where a generation ago people felt entitled to a chance at education, they now feel entitled to the credential affirming that they have completed a course of study regardless of their actual mastery.

No longer a mark of distinction or proof of achievement, a college education is these days a mere rite of passage, a capstone to adolescent party time.

Ultimately it is the yearning to believe that anyone can be brought up to college level that has brought colleges down to everyone's level.

Any departure from fact is the first step on a slippery slope toward unbelievability.

The fact is that some people are better than others - smarter, harder working, more learned, more productive, harder to replace.

The dominant mood of contemporary American culture is the self-celebration of the peasantry.

A poet laureate of adolescent sexuality and middle-age longing.

The very essence of school is elitism. Schools exist to teach, to test, to rank hierarchically to promote the idea that knowing and understanding more is better than knowing and understanding less.

In my mind, partial failure is always better than delusory success.

It is scarcely the same thing to put a man on the Moon as to put a bone in your nose.

I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet, when Christ calls me home, I shall go with gladness.

Slow down in your pursuit of happiness and it's more likely to catch up with you.

To invite people to dine with us is to make ourselves responsible for their well-being for as long as they are under our roofs.

I try never to compare myself to other people. I just think this is who I am. You are happier when you think that way.

I used to waterski on the Niagara River.

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail.

Perfect people don't drink, don't fight, don't lie, don't make mistakes and...don't exist

It can be said of optimism that while sometimes mistaken, it is never sadly mistaken.

The humanities don't belong to some elitist group... knowledge as a whole should be embraced.

In theory, practice should work like theory. In practice, it doesn't.