I have always been - I think any student of history almost inevitably is - a cheerful pessimist. Jacques Barzun More Quotes by Jacques Barzun More Quotes From Jacques Barzun Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred. Jacques Barzun tolerancepoliticalhatred Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. Jacques Barzun educationappreciationinspirational In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. Jacques Barzun educationalappreciationteacher The truth is, when all is said and done, one does not teach a subject, one teaches a student how to learn it. Jacques Barzun truthteacherscience If it were possible to talk to the unborn, one could never explain to them how it feels to be alive, for life is washed in the speechless real. Jacques Barzun realphilosophyart Criticism will need an injection of humility that is, a recognition of its role as ancillary to the arts, needed only occasionally in a temporary capacity. Since the critic exists only for introducing and explaining, he must be readily intelligible; he has no special vocabulary: criticism is in no way a science or a system. Jacques Barzun vocabularyhumilityart If civilization has risen from the Stone Age, it can rise again from the Wastepaper Age. Jacques Barzun futurevisioncivilization The test and the use of man's education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind. Jacques Barzun exerciseeducationgraduation Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions. Jacques Barzun musicemotionpurpose Education in the United States is a passion and a paradox. Millions want it, and commend it, and are busy about it. At the same time they degrade it by trying to get it free of charge and free of work. Jacques Barzun united-statespassiontrying Finding oneself was a misnomer; a self is not found but made. Jacques Barzun selffoundmade The ever-present impulse is to push against restriction and, in so doing, to feel intolerably hemmed in. Thus in practice, every liberation increases the sense of oppression. Nor is the paradox merely in the mind: the laws enacted to secure the rights of every person and group, by creating protective boundaries, create new barriers. Jacques Barzun practicerightslaw Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about the past are a form of injustice. Jacques Barzun stylejudgingpast Since in every European country between 1870 and 1914 there was a war party demanding armaments, an individualist party demanding ruthless competition, an imperialist party demanding a free hand over backward peoples, a socialist party demanding the conquest of power and a racialist party demanding internal purges against aliens - all of them, when appeals to greed and glory failed, invoked Spencer and Darwin, which was to say science incarnate. Jacques Barzun partywarcountry Of course, clothing fashions have always been impractical, except in Tahiti. Jacques Barzun tahiticlothingsfashion Above all, do not talk yourself out of good ideas by trying to expound them at haphazard meetings. Jacques Barzun advicetryingideas I can only think that the book is read because it deals with the difficulties of schooling, which do not change. Please note: the difficulties, not the problems. Problems are solved or disappear with the revolving times. Difficulities remain. It will always be difficult to teach well, to learn accurately; to read, write, and count readily and competently; to acquire a sense of history and start one's education or anothers. Jacques Barzun learningwritingbook Highly-adaptive, informal networks move diagonally and eliptically, skipping entire functions to get things done. Jacques Barzun functiondonemoving Science is an all-pervasive energy, for it is at once a mode of thought, a source of strong emotion, and a faith as fanatical as any in history. Jacques Barzun emotionstrongenergy In a large university, there are as many deans and executive heads as there are schools and departments. Their relations to one another are intricate and periodic; in fact, "galaxy" is too loose a term: it is a planetarium of deans with the President of the University as a central sun. One can see eclipses, inner systems, and oppositions. Jacques Barzun presidentsunschool
