Maturation Quotes
189 quotes
"It takes a well-spent lifetime, and perhaps more, to crystalize in us that for which we exist."
"The author said Frederick Douglass described himself as a "graduate"of slavery with the marks of his diploma on his back."
"The Mother Thing makes our world."
"More depended on the student than on the school."
"College was at the heart of his sentimental imagination."
"Oxford in the Inklings' day was not so different in look and smell from the Oxford of today. Then, as now, one was tempted to fantasize one's surroundings as a Camelot of intellectual knight-errantry or an Eden of serene contemplation. Then, as now, there was bound to be disappointment."
"A letter Lewis wrote reveals an 18-year-old with the energy of a schoolboy and the tastes of an octogenarian."
"She was too well-trained to panic."
"One of George H. W. Bush's early teachers at Andover wrote, "At the moment he is intellectually immature for his powers of reasoning are not entirely developed."
"They ran their heads very hard against wrong ideas, and persisted in trying to fit the circumstances to the ideas instead of trying to extract ideas from the circumstances."
"Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, "tuned the English tongue."
"Because he was suffering doubts about himself and his future, Adams may have felt comfort demeaning the behavior and the character of women."
Paul C. Nagel, John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life
"Better to wait actively than passively."
"Faith is the most unexercised muscle known to man."
"Jefferson was the rare student who came to college already knowing that there could be joy in studying."
John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation
"The topics we learn from our four core subjects during our childhood and adolescent stage of our lives help us to understand the norms of common knowledge and take pride of our citizenship."
"If something traumatizes you, please do not think that your life is coming to an end. You will still have opportunities to resume with your life by speaking up and seeking for assistance."
"When you are preoccupied with a disturbing thought or feeling that is considered irrational and waste of time, you will reduce your time enjoying the pleasure of your life. The strategy to overcome your mental shortcomings is to participate in outdoor activities and socialize with others who have emphatic understanding about your feelings and thoughts."
"The author said Frederick Douglass described himself as a "graduate" of slavery with the marks of his diploma on his back."
Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion
"Resilience is rooted in habits we can cultivate and change."
"when you’re the first in your family to go to college, you never truly feel like they’ve let you go."
"While my college had done an excellent job recruiting me, I had no road map for what I was supposed to do once I made it to campus."
"Sex education in the modern manner has been well-described as plumbing for hedonists."
George F. Will, The Woven Figure: Conservatism and America's Fabric
"Because children already have a realization of their weakness, is this not the best opportunity to apply the gospel to their hearts?"
Matt Chandler, Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church
"Graduates fared better if, during college, they did any one of these: developed a relationship with a mentor; took on a project that lasted a semester or more; did a job or internship directly connected to their chosen field; or became deeply involved in a campus organization or activity (as opposed to minimally involved in a range of things)."
"(He) committed the cardinal sin in a college atmosphere not only of being different but of being different in a way that left a lot of people with the impression that he thought he was better than they were."
John Feinstein, A Civil War: Army vs. Navy - A Year Inside College Football's Purest Rivalry
"Vulnerability creates unimaginable space to build each other up, as much as it creates ample room to tear each other down."
"He found his voice in the silences, where he could sing as loud and as long as he wanted with no one to complain of it."
"Women did what strawberry plants did before they shot out their thin vines: the quality of the green changed. Then the vine threads came, then the buds. By the time the white petals died and the mint-colored berry poked out, the leaf shine was gilded tight and waxy."
"I think I should be allowed to be only fair, or even mediocre, for a while."
"JFK apparently felt genuine sympathy for his 1960 presidential opponent Richard Nixon. He felt that, with Nixon's frequent shifts in political philosophy and reinventions, he must have to decide which Nixon he will be at each stop. This, Kennedy reasoned, must be exhausting."
David Pietrusza, 1960--LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign That Forged Three Presidencies
"Eleanor Roosevelt on the changes in John F. Kennedy that led her to drop her opposition to his nomination for president: "He has the qualities of a scholar, and a sense of history. I had the feeling that he was the man who can learn. I like him better than I ever had before because he seemed so little caulk-sure, and I think he has a mind that is open to new ideas."
David Pietrusza, 1960--LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign That Forged Three Presidencies
"His level of experience is nearly transcendent."
"He is able to put aside personal feelings and see the broad strokes. Experience counts in these things."
"Bring it down." Veteran leader Han Solo's correction to the overbearing swagger bike which his protégé is attempting to force his will on others."
"The author defines professionalism as exemplified by his subjects in their mutual unwillingness to take expected opposition personally. They would not allow grudges to get in the way of more important business."
"He was experienced enough to spot the downside of doing the right thing."
"Moral action – humble and honest – is the tribute that power must at some point pay to reason."
Ron Suskind, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism
"Rehnquist was just reflecting his shifting role, from outsider to the institutional embodiment of the Court."
Jeffrey Toobin, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
"The art of diplomacy is finding a reasonable route among imperfect alternatives."
Robert Dallek, Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House
"In being able to learn from his mistakes and grow, Eisenhower "was transformed from a mere person into a personage."
Lynne Olson, Citizens of London: The Americans who Stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour
"He had the ruthlessness of uninterrupted success."
"He found his irritation that the American memory could be short."
"Growing old is humbling and it takes effort to accomplish this stage of life with dignity."
"Pain is nothing but growth waiting for us to give it permission to grow us up."
"In our formative years, every person begins creating a self that can keep him or her company through later stages in life. It requires concentrated effort to create self-hood. The task of creating a fully developed human being is an ongoing process, an open-ended assignment. The goal of self-hood is to evade slipping into a state of thoughtlessness, where we fail to take ownership of our thoughts, deeds, and lifestyle."
"Nobody works harder at learning than a curious kid."
Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
"The clash is born of the fact that the child within me sees with undiluted clarity what the adult within me is incessantly working to deny. And in these most vexing moments, to be the adult is to defer to the child."
"At 17, the gratitude part of their brain is a little undercooked."
"The author jokes that the culture at his first job at Entertainment Weekly chased away the worthwhile aspects of his Brown education, but in so doing he makes a subtle point about the profound impact of the culture with which we surround ourselves and how easily we can be defined and constrained by our jobs."
A.J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
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