Howard Gardner Quotes

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

In 'Reclaiming Virtue,' I argue that we have had an element missing in moral education. That element is 'affect.' Affect is simply the technical word for feeling or emotion.

Education is the art of making man ethical.

I think that moral philosophy is useful for framing questions, but terrible at answering them. I think moral psychology is booming right now, and we're making a lot of progress on understanding how we actually work, what our moral nature is.

An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the other, is a misnomer

Morality is truth in full bloom.

We need to provide an education which teaches crit­ical thinking and encourages the development of mature moral values.

I've been deeply influenced by Aristotle's idea that virtue is a habit, something you practice and get better at, rather than something that comes naturally. 'The control of the appetites by right reason,' is how he defined it.

Our moral traditions developed concurrently with our reason, not as its product.

Some of you read with me 40 years ago a portion of Aristotle's Ethics, a selection of passages that describe his idea of happiness. You may not remember too well.

One has only as much morality as one has philosophy and poetry.

The purpose of a moral philosophy is not to look delightfully strange and counterintuitive or to provide employment to bioethicists. The purpose is to guide our choices toward life, health, beauty, happiness, fun, laughter, challenge, and learning.

I want people to come away from my book with questions. Questions about virtue and goodness. Not answers.

Force cannot transmit a moral principle: moral ideas can be received only through the reason of the heart.

Although it may be true that the notion of teaching virtues such as honesty or integrity arouses little controversy, it is also true that vague consensus on the goodness of these virtues conceals a great deal of actual disagreement over their definitions.

What is the real relation between happiness and goodness? It is only within a few generations that men have found courage to say that there is none.

The moral earth, too, is round! The moral earth, too, has its antipodes! The antipodes, too, have their right to exist! There is still another world to be discovered--and more than one! Set sail, you philosophers!

People need to be educated so that they can make intelligent moral choices

Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art.

It is a prejudice to think that morality is more favourable to the development of reason than immorality.

True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character.

Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.

A perverted moral judgment belongs to the dogmatic system.

One of the first things a family tries to teach its children is the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. One of the first things our schools do is destroy that distinction.

I don't think goodness is something that you learn. If you're left adrift in the world to learn goodness from it, you would be in trouble.