Mark Van Doren Quotes

26 quotes in 352 categories

• Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.
• To be what no one ever was, to be what everyone has been: Freedom is the mean of those extremes that fence all effort in.
• Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth.
• To fail to love is not to exist at all.
• Respect for the Truth is an acquired taste.
• The literature of the world has exerted its power by being translated.
• I have always had the greatest respect for students. There is nothing I hate more than condescension—the attitude that they are inferior to you. I…
• Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.
• An unexamined idea, to paraphrase Socrates, is not worth having and a society whose ideas are never explored for possible error may eventually find its…
• If you look around the table and you can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.
• The art of reading is the art of adopting the pace the author has set. Some books are fast and some are slow, but no…
• When it aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love, though…
• Our best chance for happiness is education.
• It’s a curious thing. I suppose most people think of artists as impatient but I don’t know of any first-rate artist who hasn’t manifested in…
• A classic is a book that remains in print
• Weightless in water, swift as the wind, Subtle of purpose - a feather blown - I go with my oarsmen where they will, My beautiful…
• Memory performs the impossible for man; holds together past and present, gives continuity and dignity to human life.
• Wisdom before experience is only words; wisdom after experience is of no avail.
• There is no appeal from the ways of the world, which must continue on its own terms or take us all down with it into…
• There are two statements about human beings that are true: that all human beings are alike, and that all are different. On those two facts…

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