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. -John W. Gardner Education
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. -John W. Gardner Money
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. -John W. Gardner Education
It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government. -John W. Gardner Government
One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure. -John W. Gardner Failure
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. -John W. Gardner Freedom
One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure. -John W. Gardner Learning
If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are. -John W. Gardner Respect
Some people strengthen the society just by being the kind of people they are. -John W. Gardner Society
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. -John W. Gardner Men
It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government. -John W. Gardner Respect
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. -John W. Gardner Courage
When one may pay out over two million dollars to presidential and Congressional campaigns, the U.S. government is virtually up for sale. -John W. Gardner Politics
