Quote #16

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.

More from Jacques Barzun

  1. The need for a body of common knowledge and common reference does not disappear when a society is pluralistic. On the contrary, it grows mo…
  2. He sent me a letter from India, where I think he got a fellowship to spend a year or so. He sent me a letter that read, I've just met a won…
  3. The truth is, when all is said and done, one does not teach a subject, one teaches a student how to learn it.
  4. Bernard Shaw remains the only model we have of what the citizen of a democracy should be: an informed participant in all things we deem imp…
  5. My notion about any artist is that we honor him best by reading him, by playing his music, by seeing his plays or by looking at his picture…
  6. I have always been - I think any student of history almost inevitably is - a cheerful pessimist.
  7. When plugged in, the least elaborate computer can be relied on to work to the fullest extent of its capacity. The greatest mind cannot be r…
  8. Old age is like learning a new profession. And not one of your own choosing.

All Jacques Barzun quotes