Kevin McCloud Quotes

Everybody keeps calling for Excellence - excellence not just in schooling, throughout society. But as soon as somebody or something stands out as Excellent, the other shout goes up: "Elitism!" And whatever produced that thing, whoever praises that result, is promptly put down. "Standing out" is undemocratic.

Democracy runs on equality; freedom and excellence run on inequality. The tension between those two realities shapes almost every real problem in education today. How do we respect every person’s equal dignity and opportunity while also recognizing and cultivating individual excellence? Nearly every university in America has decided to answer that question by abandoning excellence. Harvard hands out more A’s than any other grade. Yale gives nearly 60 percent of students straight A’s. Princeton no longer requires Greek or Latin to major in the classics. Columbia proudly ditched the SAT. In our leading institutions, honors are handed out like candy while calculus is quietly dropped.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

Quality is easy to talk but hard to make.

The genius of our institutions is democratic - baseball is a democratic game.

When you're working with the best of the best, I'm not gonna put that on hold so I can work with people who studied the best of the best.

Being an American is not easy. It is hard. We are required to keep some serious promises. We are judged by a high standard, ones we crafted for ourselves in the founding documents of the republic, the ones that talk about the equality of all people, the ones that tell us that government is of the people, by the people and for the people. We need to live by this, at home and abroad, and it is just about the only thing we can do to face the hatred of those who want to destroy us. Our best defense is to stay true to who we are. Our best defense is to refuse to live in fear, of them, of ourselves, of anyone.

In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another. Offices were not established to give support to particular men at the public expense

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions — it only guarantees equality of opportunity.

The people of England are not, like the people of France, lovers of naked political equality. England is a great lover of liberty; but of equality she never has been so much enamored.

In any democracy, there is always a tug-of-war between policies to achieve equality and policies to promote excellence. I am certain that Canada can achieve both equality and excellence.

Monopoly and privilege must be destroyed, opportunity afforded, and competition encouraged. This is Liberty's work.

… in a republic where all are free and equal--prosperity and position constitute rank.

[Napoleon Bonaparte] Bonaparte instituted the setting of merit above birth, and also so completely stripped the divinity from royalty that, whereas crowned heads in Europe were gods before, they are only men since, and can never be gods again, but only figure-heads, and answerable for their acts like common clay. Such benefactions as these compensate the temporary harm which Bonaparte and the Revolution did, and leave the world in debt to them for these great and permanent services to liberty, humanity, and progress.

Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions.

In America, our origins matter less than our destinations and that is what democracy is all about.

I basically try to give people top quality.

There is a fundamental notion at the core of American identity that, in this country, any little boy or girl can grow up to be president.

Neil and I share a desire for great quality in our work. If we are offered projects, look at projects, or consider projects that don't have that quality, then we don't do them.

Anybody could put their thoughts on a record out there. I think the world of reviews and opinions is now very much a meritocracy.

I appreciate good work no matter where it's coming from.

I like quality over quantity.

Leaders set high standards. Refuse to tolerate mediocrity or poor performance.

With effort we can protect the foundation of our democracy, for which so many marched across this bridge, the right to vote.

The beauty of a democracy is that you never can tell when a youngster is born what he is going to do with himself, and that no matter how humbly he is born, no matter where he is born, no matter what circumstances hamper him at the outset, he has got a chance to master the minds and lead the imaginations of the whole country.