The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery..

Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment exactly proportional to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow, when I know more, I rec….

There is one thing we can do, and the happiest of people are those who do it to the limit of their ability. We can be completely present..

An unexamined idea, to paraphrase Socrates, is not worth having and a society whose ideas are never explored for possible error may eventually find i….

The art of reading is the art of adopting the pace the author has set. Some books are fast and some are slow, but no book can be understood if it is ….

Wit is the only wall between us and the dark..

Wisdom before experience is only words; wisdom after experience is of no avail..

Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth..

I love the fall. I love it because of the smells that you speak of; and also because things are dying, things that you don't have to take care of any….

To be what no one ever was, to be what everyone has been: Freedom is the mean of those extremes that fence all effort in..

Memory performs the impossible for man by the strength of his divine arms; holds together past and present, beholding both, existing in both, abides ….

To fail to love is not to exist at all..

There is no appeal from the ways of the world, which must continue on its own terms or take us all down with it into chaos and confusion..

The literature of the world has exerted its power by being translated..

A classic is a book that remains in print.

If you look around the table and you can't tell who the sucker is, it's you..

The job of the poet is to render the world-to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimen….

Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king..

Our best chance for happiness is education..

I have always had the greatest respect for students. There is nothing I hate more than condescension—the attitude that they are inferior to you. I al….

When it aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love, though we must love it because we h….