118 Quotes by John W. Gardner

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.

Some people strengthen the society just by being the kind of people they are.

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.

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities - brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.

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.

History never looks like history when you are living through it.

Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them.

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.

If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.