The play of conflicting interests in a framework of shared purposes is the drama of a free society. It is a robust exercise, and often a noisy one. It is not for the faint-hearted, or the tidy-minded.
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.
In the United States, to an unprecedented degree, the individual’s social role has come to be determined not by who he is but by what he can accomplish.
Renewal is not just innovation and change. It is also the process of bringing the results of change into line with our purposes.
The world loves talent but pays off on character.
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.
Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them.
The idea for which this nation stands will not survive if the highest goal free man can set themselves is an amiable mediocrity. Excellence implies striving for the highest standards in every phase of life.
The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept.
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.
In the artist’s recreation of the world we are enabled to see the world.
It is one of the ironies of history that reformers so often misjudge the consequences of their reforms.
An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher.
One man interacting creatively with others can move the world.
Creativity requires the freedom to consider ‘unthinkable’ alternatives, to doubt the worth of cherished practices. Every organization, every society is under the spell of assumptions so familiar that they are never questioned, least of all by those most intimately involved.
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.
The best kept secret in America today is that people would rather work hard for something they believe in than live a life of aimless diversion.
Excellence implies striving for the highest standards in every phase of life.
All of us celebrate our values in our behavior.
Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather.
We have to face the fact that most men and women out there are more stale than they know, more bored than they care to admit.