Mortality defines the human condition. Drew Gilpin Faust More Quotes by Drew Gilpin Faust More Quotes From Drew Gilpin Faust I’m not the woman president of Harvard, I’m the president of Harvard. Drew Gilpin Faust harvard president A university is not about results in the next quarter; it is not even about who a student has become by graduation. It is about learning that molds a lifetime, learning that transmits the heritage of millennia; learning that shapes the future Drew Gilpin Faust mold heritage shapes If you don't pursue what you think will be most meaningful, you will regret it. Life is long. There is always time for Plan B. But don't begin with it. Drew Gilpin Faust regret meaningful thinking Look to the past to help create the future. Look to science and to poetry. Combine innovation and interpretation. We need the best of both. And it is universities that best provide them. Drew Gilpin Faust innovation past needs Leadership is about moving people from where they are to where you hope they'll go. Drew Gilpin Faust people moving The ability to recognize opportunities and move in new - and sometimes unexpected - directions will benefit you no matter your interests or aspirations. Drew Gilpin Faust benefits opportunity moving The American Civil War produced carnage that has often been thought reserved for the combination of technological proficiency and inhumanity characteristic of a later time. Drew Gilpin Faust characteristics combination war A leader has to keep saying the same things over and over again. Drew Gilpin Faust saying-the-same-thing-over-and-over leader I often read nonfiction with a pencil in hand. I love the feel, the smell, the design, the weight of a book, but I also enjoy the convenience of my Kindle - for travel and for procuring a book in seconds. Drew Gilpin Faust smell book hands The ability to recognize opportunities and move in new - and sometimes unexpected - directions will benefit you no matter your interests or aspirations. A liberal arts education is designed to equip students for just such flexibility and imagination. Drew Gilpin Faust you imagination education sometimes As a kid, I was growing up in an era of celebration of the Civil War centennial, with a lot of 'Lost Cause' emphasis on the Confederacy. I used to play Civil War soldiers with my brothers as a child, and my older brother always insisted that he got to be Lee, and I got be Grant. I never knew that Grant won until quite some time had passed. Drew Gilpin Faust child brother time war In the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States embarked on a new relationship with death, entering into a civil war that proved bloodier than any other conflict in American history, a war that would presage the slaughter of World War I's Western Front and the global carnage of the twentieth century. Drew Gilpin Faust relationship war death history I never planned my career. I never planned to be president of Harvard. People would have thought I was crazy, probably, at the age of 8 or 10 or 20, if I had said that. So what I would say to people planning their careers is to be ready to improvise. Be ready to follow up on opportunities as they unfold. Drew Gilpin Faust thought crazy age people When I was growing up in Virginia, the Civil War was presented to me as glorious with dramatic courage and military honor. Later, I realized how death was central to the reality. It was at the core of women's lives. It's what they talked about most. Drew Gilpin Faust me women war death I always seem to be reading several books at once. Drew Gilpin Faust once books always reading Albert Camus's 'La Peste' - 'The Plague' - had an enormous impact on me when I read it in high school French class, and I chose my senior yearbook quote from it. In college, I wrote a philosophy class paper on Camus and Sartre, and again chose my yearbook quote from 'La Peste.' Drew Gilpin Faust me high-school college school I have always loved animals, and as a child, I read a lot of horse books. I had a particular favorite called 'Silver Snaffles' that my mother gave away. Drew Gilpin Faust loved child horse mother I've always done more than I ever thought I would. Becoming a professor - I never would have imagined that. Writing books - I never would have imagined that. Getting a Ph.D. - I'm not sure I would even have imagined that. I've lived my life a step at a time. Things sort of happened. Drew Gilpin Faust my-life step time life I lived in a world where social arrangements were taken for granted and assumed to be timeless. A child's obligation was to learn these usages, not to question them. The complexities of racial deportment were of a piece with learning manners and etiquette more generally. Drew Gilpin Faust child learning manners world I've had dialogues with my dead mother over the 40 years since she died. Drew Gilpin Faust dead she over mother
