Some of My Favorite Quotes

Making a Better World

“So let us not be blind to our differences, but let us direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.  And if we cannot now end our differences, at least we can make the world safe for diversity.”  - John F. Kennedy

“In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.”  - Senator J. William Fulbright

“It is altogether unrealistic -- and probably undesirable as well -- to aspire toward a single, universal community of humankind with common values and common institutions... the approachment of peoples is only possible when differences of culture and outlook are respected and appreciated rather than feared and condemned when the common bond of human dignity is recognized as the essential bond for a peaceful world.” - Senator J. William Fulbright

“If people get together, so eventually will nations.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

“There is very little that our government or any government can do to plant the seeds of international understanding in the hearts and minds of people around the world.  If people by the millions can reach out their hands in friendship and communicate directly warmth, personal interest and respect, it will be a real beginning in the struggle for a peaceful world.”  Dwight D. Eisenhower

“The role of the United States as a leader among nations is changing rapidly.  Despite our position of international leadership for almost fifty years, we are ill-prepared for the changes in business, manufacturing, diplomacy, science and technology that have come with an intensely interdependent world.  Effectiveness in such a world requires a citizenry whose knowledge is sufficiently international in scope to cope with global interdependence.” - Council on International Educational Exchange from Educating for Global Competence

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin

“We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those that don't.” - Frank A. Clark

... in today's multicultural world, the truly reliable path to coexistence, to peaceful coexistence and creative cooperation, must start from what is at the root of all cultures and what lies infinitely deeper in human hearts and minds than political opinion, convictions, antipathies, or sympathies - it must be rooted in self-transcendence:

 

Transcendence as a hand reached out to those close to us, to foreigners, to the human community, to all living creatures, to nature, to the universe.

 

Transcendence as a deeply and joyously experienced need to be in harmony even with what we ourselves are not, what we do not understand, what seems distant from us in time and space, but with which we are nevertheless mysteriously linked because, together with us, all this constitutes a single world.

 

Transcendence as the only real alternative to extinction.

 

- Vaclav Havel, from a speech given at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, in 1994.

Travel

“The world is a great book, of which they who never stir from home read only a page.”  - St. Augustine

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it solely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain

“Travel is necessary to understanding man.  Such delicate goods as justice, love, honor and courtesy are valid everywhere, but they are variously molded, often differently handled, and sometimes nearly unrecognizable if you meet them in a foreign land.” - Unknown

“The art of learning fundamental common values is perhaps the greatest gain of travel to those who wish to live at ease among their fellows.” - Freya Stark

“We don't get to know people when they come to us.  We must go to them to find out what they are like.” - Goethe

“So the journey is over and I am back again where I started, richer by much experience and poorer by many unexploded certainties.  For convictions and certainties are too often the concomitants of ignorance.  Those who like to feel they are always right and who attached a high importance to their own opinions should stay at home. When one is traveling, convictions are mislaid as easily as spectacles; but unlike spectacles, they are not easily replaced.” - Aldous Huxley from Jesting Pilate

“Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded who I really am.  There is no mystery about why this should be so.  Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of food, your closet full of clothes -- with all this taken away, you are forced into a direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who is having the experience.  That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating.” - Michael Crichton from Travels

“The born traveller--the man who is without prejudices, who sets out wanting to learn rather than to criticize, who is stimulated by oddity, who recognizes that every man is his brother, however strange and ludicrous he may be in dress and appearance--has always been comparatively rare.” - Hugh and Pauline Massingham from The Englishman Abroad

“Of journeying the benefits are many: the freshness it bringeth to the heart, the seeing and hearing of marvelous things, the delight of beholding new cities, the meeting of unknown friends, and the learning of high manners.” - Sa’di, from The Gulistan

“Traveling is not just seeing the new; it is also leaving behind. Not just opening doors; also closing them behind you, never to return. But the place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes.” -  Jan Myrdal

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey the matters in the end.” - Ursula K. LeGuin

“I think, despite the carbon footprint problems, we should all travel more, particularly to places where they don’t speak English.  I think it’s just a really great thing for our psyche and our sense of community and our sense of how we’re all connected - to be in other countries, to be a minority, to be on the outside. somewhere.” - Nick Forster of eTown

I’ve often theorized why time seems to go by faster as we age and I have a personal theory that I, of course, believe is true. It goes something like this. When we are young, we are experiencing things for the first time; we are learning very basic information to survive in this world and to get along. This requires our full attention, and hence, we are not distracted by anything else as we learn these new skills. Time slows down as we give our full attention to our new project – learning to live.

 

But, as we live our lives, we grow out of the learning mode so that what we do on a daily basis is simply a repeat of the day before. Since we’ve done it before, we often just operate on auto-pilot and our day flies by and weeks turn into years.

 

I do think we can slow time down as adults by putting ourselves in a new situation or environment that requires our full attention. Try a new hobby, master a new skill, take a class, and my favorite of them all – travel! Yep, travel puts you in new situations, it presents new learning opportunities, and it takes you out of your routine, if only for a little while. 

 

 - Debra Asberry from Women Traveling Together

“20 years from now you will be disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” - Martin Buber

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G. K. Chesterton

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better have stayed home.  You are like a pebble thrown into the water: you become wet on the surface, but you are never a part of the water.” - James Michener

“The insight one gains from world travel far exceeds the value of the coin spent.  Keeping the coin in the pocket is like having the book but not reading it for fear of tearing a page.” - Unknown

Life

“The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things which matter least.” - Goethe

“If you’re always trying to be Normal you will never know how amazing you can be.” - Maya Angelou

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”  -Albert Einstein

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Soren Kierkegaard

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure.  There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” - Jawaharlal Nehru

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.” - Anaïs Nin 

“It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.” - Unknown

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”  - Eleanor Roosevelt

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.  Willing is not enough; we must do.” - Goethe

“How shall I talk of the sea to the frog, if he has never left his pond? How shall I talk of the frost to the bird of the summer land, if it has never left the land of its birth? How shall I talk of life with the sage, if he is a prisoner of his doctrine?” - Chinese poet, 4th century B.C.

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If at some point you don’t ask yourself, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ then you’re not doing it right.” - Roland Gau

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” - Steve Jobs

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” – Wayne Gretzky

“The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.”  – Martha Washington

“Life is what happens when we are making other plans.” – John Lennon

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” –Elbert Hubbard

“A ship is safe in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.” – Gael Attal

“The glass is never half empty if you always see it as half full.” - Unknown

“Don’t think about the problem you’re having, think ahead to the solution.” - Unknown

“Collect opportunities.” - Unknown

“Due to the shortage of robots, some of our employees are human and will react unpredictably when abused.” – Unknown

“A smooth sea never made a skillful manager.” – Unknown

“You can’t dream unless you know what the possibilities are.”  - Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

“Failure is good. It's fertilizer. Everything I've learned about coaching, I've learned from making mistakes.”  - Rick Pitino

“ Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure.” - Amos Bronson Alcott

“Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out—it's the grain of sand in your shoe”. - Robert Service

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.” -Wayne Gretzy

 “Just because fate doesn't deal you the right cards, it doesn't mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential.” - Les Brown

“If we're not connecting our long-term view to our present activities, we might have the sensation of busyness, but we're not getting anything meaningful done.” - Drake Baer at fastcompany.com

“Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.” - Dave Gardner

Education

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper.”  - Robert Frost

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” - Socrates

“It is not much good thinking of a thing unless you think it out.” - H. G. Wells

“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.”  – Auguste Rodin

“There are two ways of spreading light - to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.” - Edith Wharton

“Telling is not teaching.” - Unknown

“The Student Is... not an interruption, but our focus...” - Unknown

“Educational exchange is not merely one of those nice but marginal activities in which we engage in international affairs, but rather, from the standpoint of future world peace and order, probably the most important and potentially rewarding of our foreign-policy activities.” - Senator J. William Fulbright

“International exchanges are not a great tide to sweep away all difference.  But they will slowly wear away obstacles to peace as surely as water wears away a hard stone.” - President George H. W. Bush in his October 1989 address to IIE.

“Study abroad is the best way available to understand the force that is now the most immediate source of armed confrontations in the world - ethnic conflict.  As you look around, that's what you see and we are two or three generations behind in any understanding of it.  There is only one answer to that, if there is one, and that is to go abroad and study it, touch it, feel it, and try to understand it.” - Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

“I've often thought there ought to be a manual to hand to little kids, telling them what kind of planet they're on, why they don't fall off it, how much time they've got here, how to avoid poison ivy, and so on... And one thing I would really like to tell them about is cultural relativity. I didn't learn until I was in college about all the other cultures, and I should have learned that in the first grade.  A first grader should understand that his or her culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society.  Cultural relativity is defensible and attractive.  It's a source of hope.  It means we don't have to continue this way if we don't like it.”   - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“You can buy what you want in English but you can’t sell what you want unless you have an understanding of the language and culture of the economy you want to do business with.” - Richard Celeste, Former Colorado College President, former governor of Ohio and former ambassador to India

 “A friend in Sweden once asked me, ‘do you know what your students will find when they come to Sweden?’  When I couldn't come up with a very good answer he said, ‘they will find themselves’.”  - Unknown

Change

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

“It is common sense to take a method and try it.  If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.  But above all, try something.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The difference between stepping stones and stumbling blocks depends on your point of view.” – Unknown

“Security is mostly a superstition.  It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.  Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.  To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.” – Helen Keller from Let Us Have Faith

“Each person’s task in life is to become an increasingly better person.” - Leo Tolstoy

“If at first you don’t succeed, redefine success.” – Unknown

“When the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is in sight.”  - Jack Welch

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.  Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness.  I have walked myself into my best thoughts and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.” - Soren Kierkegaard

"Someone recently created a way to think more easily about the whole population of our world.  Rather than try to imagine the total population of our planet in their many diverse countries, we are asked to picture the world as a village of 1000 people.  In that village (representing the world population) 564 people would be Asian, 210 European, 86 African, 87 South American, and 60 North American.  More startling is that of those 1000 people, 700 would be illiterate, 600 live in shanty towns, and 500 are hungry.  And 60 of the people in that village of 1000 own half of the income of the entire town." - Origin unknown

"The fragility of the world in which we live...adds urgency to the need for international and multicultural experience in the course of study. At this moment in history, colleges are not being asked to produce village squires but citizens of a shrinking world."  - From Integrity of the College Curriculum in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb 13, 1985.