More - John Gardner Quotes

When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: 'Only stand out of my light.' Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we c

John Gardner

 

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 Gardner

 Education

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 Gardner

 Belief

Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the nonpharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.

John Gardner

 Pity

One of the reasons mature people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.

John Gardner

 Failure Risk

More and more Americans feel threatened by runaway technology, by large-scale organization, by overcrowding. More and more Americans are appalled by the ravages of industrial progress, by the defacement of nature, by man-made ugliness. If our society continues at its present rate to become less livable as it becomes more affluent, we promise all to end up in sumptuous misery.

John Gardner

 

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 Gardner

 Excellence

The university became the major generator of U.S. research. That caused an opportunity and an obligation to turn that research into results, putting research and education together.

John Gardner

 Obligation

Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all.

John Gardner

 Conviction

We are so pleased to have such a qualified and distinguished director for the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Ms. Ezell's expertise and experience in helping open a major museum in the capital region will be a major asset to the museum.

John Gardner