Colleges Quotes

“Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Ah college years, those were the days. Pure freedom ... leaving home for the first time…the parties…”
"What about the tutorials, the lectures, the large building with all the books called the ‘library’?”
“Is that what those were?” Gerry blithely replied.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly,

“Birds do not attend flight schools; Rivers do not attend flowing colleges; Fishes do not attend swimming conferences; Trees do not attend fruit bearing seminars... There is something that you can do automatically that someone may not do... Find it and do it! There is something someone may do automatically that you may not do; leave it for him to it!”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“You must live feverishly in a library. Colleges are not going to do any good unless you are raised and live in a library everyday of your life.”
― Ray Bradbury

“You are more likely to find three TVs inside a randomly selected house than you are to find a single book that is or was not read to pass an exam, to please God, or to be a better cook.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Whether right or wrong, it is my belief that Christian colleges place their emphasis not on that which divides us, but on the substance that binds us together. That commonality is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He commanded us to love one another—to set aside our differences and to care for “the least of these” among us. It is our unity, not our diversity, that deserves our allegiance.”
― James C. Dobson, Life on the Edge: The Next Generation's Guide to a Meaningful Future

“This larger goal wouldn’t be the imitation of education in Universities today, glossed over and concealed by grades and degrees that give the appearance of something happening when, in fact, almost nothing is going on. It would be the real thing.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

“I would not have believed the level of incompetence that was present in some Ivy League colleges and universities had I not worked for them.”
― Steven Magee

“Free self-education by the internet is the biggest threat to the future of colleges and universities.”
― Steven Magee

“I remember one professor refusing to speak to me for several months after I published a column called 'The Campus Crusade Against Christ'.”
― Mike Adams, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" on Campus

“Education is the result of self-learning, being taught by one or more people. Learning is the key word here. Schools, colleges and universities only divide you into CLASSES according to your level of understanding.”
― Mwanandeke Kindembo

“Perhaps the greatest obstacle to systemic reform was that it required numerous stakeholders - textbook publishers, test publishers, schools of education, and so on - to change, which turned out to be an insurmountable political obstacle.”
― Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education

“If you keep the distinction between speech and violence clear in your mind, then many more options are available to you. As Marcus Aurelius advised, "Choose not to be harmed- and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed- and you haven't been." The more ways your identity can be threatened by casual daily interactions, the more valuable it will be to cultivate the Stoic (and Buddhist, and CBT) ability to not be emotionally reactive, to not let others control your mind and your cortisol levels... words don't cause stress directly; they can only provoke stress and suffering in a person who has interpreted those words as posing a threat.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

“U.S. elite institutions draw substantial international enrollment, and seventeen of the top twenty-five universities in the world are in the United States.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

“The fundamental cause of campus intolerance," [Eric Adler] suggests... is "a market-driven decision by universities... to treat students as consumers-- who pay up to $60,000 per year for courses, excellent cuisine, comfortable accommodations, and a lively campus life."... he explains:
Even at public universities, 18-year-olds are purchasing what is essentially a luxury product. Is it any wonder they feel entitled to control the experience?... Students, accustomed to authoring every facet of their college experience, now want their institutions to mirror their views. If the customers can determine the curriculum and select all their desired amenities, it stands to reason that they should also determine which speakers ought to be invited to campus and what opinions can be articulated in their midst.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt

“In practice, the bar has been lowered; many universities use the concept of harassment to justify punishing one-time utterances that could be construed as offensive but don't really look anything like harassment”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

“Some regulations promulgated by administrators restrict freedom of speech, often with highly subjective definitions of key concepts. These rules contribute to an attitude on campus that chills speech, in part by suggesting that freedom of speech can or should be restricted because of some students' emotional discomfort. This teaches catastrophizing and mind reading (among other cognitive distortions) and promotes the Untruth of Emotional Reasoning.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

“IDENTIFYING A WISE UNIVERSITY

Five questions alumni, parents, college counselors, and prospective students should ask universities:

1. What steps do you take (if any) to teach incoming students about academic freedom and free inquiry before they take their first classes?
2. How would you handle a demand that a professor be fired because of an opinion he or she expressed in the article or interview, which other people found deeply offensive?
3. What would your institution do if a controversial speaker were scheduled to speak, and large protests that included credible threats of violence were planned?
4. How is your institution responding to the increase in students who suffer from anxiety and depression?
5. What does your university do to foster a sense of shared identity?

Look for answers that indicate that the institution has a high tolerance for vigorous disagreement but no tolerance for violence or intimidation.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt

“Something is going badly wrong for American teenagers, as we can see in the statistics on depression, anxiety, and suicide. Something is going very wrong on many college campuses, as we can see in the growth of call-out culture, in the rise in efforts to disinvite or shout down visiting speakers, and in changing norms about speech, including a recent tendency to evaluate speech in terms of safety and danger. This new culture of safetyism and vindictive protectiveness is bad for students and bad for universities.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure