32 Quotes by Mark Van Doren

There are two statements about human beings that are true: that all human beings are alike, and that all are different. On those two facts all human wisdom is founded.

Respect for the Truth is an acquired taste.

The connectedness of things is what the educator contemplates to the limit of his capacity. No human capacity is great enough to permit a vision of the world as simple, but if the educator does not aim at the vision no one else will, and the consequences are dire when no one does.

Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.

Weightless in water, swift as the wind, Subtle of purpose – a feather blown – I go with my oarsmen where they will, My beautiful body and theirs all one.

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 anymore, and the grass stops growing.

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 always assume they have good minds.

It’s a curious thing. I suppose most people think of artists as impatient but I don’t know of any first-rate artist who hasn’t manifested in his career an appalling patience, a willingness to wait and to do his best now in the expectation that next year he will do better.

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