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John W. 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."

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"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."

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Donna Grant

"It takes all sorts of people to make a world, as I've often heard, but I think there are some who could be spared,' Anne told her reflection in the east gable mirror that night."

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Donna Grant

"Most peoples are prisoners of other people's thoughts."

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Donna Grant

"Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home."

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Donna Grant

"Your water is in the bottles, and my water is in the bucket, but we are brothers? I am collecting garbage, and you are in the bed, but we are sisters? My fingers are broken, and your hands are so soft, but we are family? Your God is like an angel, and my God is like an evil, but we are equal? My stomach is empty, and your stomach is so big, but we are humans?"

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Donna Grant

"PLEASE and THANK YOU...two polite phrases which are slowly disappearing from our vocabulary."

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Donna Grant

"With false names, on the right nets, they could be anybody. Old men, middle-aged women, anybody, as long as they were careful about the way they wrote. All that anyone would see were the words, their ideas. Every citizen started equal, on the nets."

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Donna Grant

"We...advance toward a state of society in which not only each man but every impulse in each man claims carte blanche."

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Donna Grant

"It is ever so much easier to be good if your clothes are fashionable."

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Donna Grant

"Women who don't like the rules change the rules."

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Donna Grant

"Large families are communities unto their own."

Explore more quotes by John W. Gardner

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John W. Gardner
"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."
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John W. Gardner
"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."
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John W. Gardner
"The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursing his own education. This will not be a widely shared pursuit until we get over our odd conviction that education is what goes on in school buildings and nowhere else."
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John W. Gardner
"Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them."
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John W. Gardner
"If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are."
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John W. Gardner
"America's greatness has been the greatness of a free people who shared certain moral commitments. Freedom without moral commitment is aimless and promptly self-destructive."
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John W. Gardner
"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."
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John W. Gardner
"True happiness involves the full use of one's power and talents."
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John W. Gardner
"The hallmark of our age is the tension between aspirations and sluggish institutions."
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John W. Gardner
"I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder that we could have tolerated anything so primitive."
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