A biography for John W. Gardnerhasn’t been written yet.
“The world loves talent but pays off on character.”
“Whoever I am, or whatever I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach.”
“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.”
“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.”
“All laws are an attempt to domesticate the natural ferocity of the species.”
“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.”
“For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred.”
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities - brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them.”
“History never looks like history when you are living through it.”
“True happiness involves the full use of one's power and talents.”
“If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.”
“The cynic says, 'One man can't do anything.' I say, 'Only one man can do anything.'”
“But a society in which pluralism is not undergirded by some shared values and held together by some measure of mutual trust simply cannot survive. Pluralism that reflects no commitments whatever to the common good is pluralism gone berserk... ..Leaders unwilling to seek mutually workable arrangements within systems to their own are not surviving the long-term interest of their constituents”
“Our problem is not to find better values but to be faithful to those we profess.”
“Some people strengthen the society just by being the kind of people they are.”
“If you don't give your kid freedom to make choices with money, including stupid choices, he'll make plenty when he gets to college.”
“The hallmark of our age is the tension between aspirations and sluggish institutions.”