John W. Gardner Quotes

In business, experience is the big teacher.

I loved Debussy, Stravinsky, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, anything with romantic melodies, especially the nocturnes. Nietzsche was a hero, especially with 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra.' He gets a bad rap; he's very misunderstood. He's a maker of individuals, and he was a teacher of teachers.

By the work one knows the workman.

A good physician goes to be helpful where there is most sickness. So a good philosopher should be where there is most stupidity

If you're going to make comments on economy, study economy. If you're gonna make comments on world history, make sure you learn world history. If you're gonna save lives and be a doctor, you need to study medicine. Then, you will be able to make comments on economy, on medicine, and on world history.

Authority does not equal competency.

Let every man practise the trade which he best understands.

Having only wisdom and talent is the lowest tier of usefulness.

An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

There is also one excellent reason why the veriest amateur may feel entitled to have an opinion about education. For if we are not all professional teachers, we have all, at some time or other, been taught. Even if we learned nothing-perhaps in particular if we learned nothing-our contribution to the discussion may have a potential value.

I hate amateurs. I hate unprofessional people. There are enough people who can do jobs decently that there's no reason that people who cannot do them decently [should] pretend to be great at it.

Education should turn out the pupil with something he knows well and something he can do well.

To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

Are you experienced? Have you ever been experienced?

American parents, on the whole, do not want their sons to be artisans or craftsmen, but business or professional people. As a result, millions of youngsters are being prepared for careers they have little aptitude for - and little interest in except for dubious prestige.

Problems always appear big when incompetent men are working on them.

Data is what distinguishes the dilettante from the artist

You have to know your craft. I find that most people who are very, very successful know their craft and have done the research.

The people who taught really knew their stuff. My chemistry teacher, Frank Wade, was actually a chemist. I was so lucky in a number of ways.

The first thing you've got to do is know your craft, and then you can do something else with it.

There are many skillful apprentices, but few master workmen.

We live in a highly industrialized society and every member of the Black nation must be as academically and technologically developed as possible. To wage a revolution, we need competent teachers, doctors, nurses, electronics experts, chemists, biologists, physicists, political scientists, and so on and so forth. Black women sitting at home reading bedtime stories to their children are just not going to make it.

I would surround myself with people who know what they're doing.

You have to be a master to teach.

Don't be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.