John W. Gardner

America's greatness has been the greatness of a free people who shared certain moral commitments. Freedom without moral commitment is aimless and promptly self-destructive. ↗

— John W. Gardner

#america #been #certain #commitment #commitments

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

#belief #community #corrupt #cynical #existence

True happiness involves the full use of one's power and talents. ↗

— John W. Gardner

#full #happiness #involves #power #talents

I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder that we could have tolerated anything so primitive. ↗

— John W. Gardner

#anything #back #certain #could #education

One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure. ↗

— John W. Gardner

#failure #learning #less #people #reasons

Our problem is not to find better values but to be faithful to those we profess. ↗

— John W. Gardner

#faithful #find #our #problem #profess

All laws are an attempt to domesticate the natural ferocity of the species. ↗

— John W. Gardner

#ferocity #laws #natural #species

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

#better #effective #helping #more #people

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government. ↗

— John W. Gardner

#distant #feel #hard #huge #individually

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

— John W. Gardner

#few #greatness #people #some #some people