My kids are coming up in a different time then me. Interracial couples are of the norm. With me, it’s about making sure my kids understand the importance of education and having opportunities that I didn’t. My goal as a parent is to make sure they don’t take what they have for granted.

If we help an educated man’s daughter to go to Cambridge are we not forcing her to think not about education but about war? – not how she can learn, but how she can fight in order that she might win the same advantages as her brothers?

I don’t pick up toys. I crush them.

I was brought up to believe that the worst thing you could do was ‚call attention to yourself,‘ or ‚think you were smart.‘ My mother was an exception to this rule and was punished by the early onset of Parkinson’s disease.

Fill the earth with your songs of gratitude.

My problem was my inability to spend much time at home. I thought my family was secure, so I went running around everyplace else. I guess I had more of an effect on other people’s kids than I did my own.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

When you walk into my classroom, I’m going to give it to you straight, just like in the real world, because that’s the only way to prepare you for the real world.

We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres, or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

I think the depth, what children can handle and what they’re interested in, is much deeper than I think what people assume. I think it’s why sometimes we make things too simple for them.

Always have something beautiful in sight, even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.

I want to work; then, as my kids get older, I want to have adventures. I want to visit all their countries: learn and live inside all their cultures.

I know a lot of people who wouldn’t be comfortable with everything that comes with being in a band as big as Nirvana. The thing that I don’t understand is not appreciating that simple gift of being able to play music.

It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.

My grandfather lived to be late 90s on one side and on the other side, 70s or something. And my father died young, at 63. But he didn’t take very good care of himself.

Lectures should go from being like the family singing around the piano to high-quality concerts.

We’re African-American and we work together as a family, so people assume we’re like the Jacksons. But I didn’t have parents using me to get out of a bad situation.

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.

First grade is very cheap. It’s the later grades where you have to spend a lot of money if you don’t do it right.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

Study hard so that you can master technology, which allows us to master nature.

These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that.

As the father of eight children, I’m quite convinced that each individual arrives here with their own unique personality. We are intended here from an invisible held of infinite potentiality. That which has no form, has no boundaries – it’s the I that’s in the ever-changing body.

My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim.

I’ve never professed to be anything but an average student.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.

Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

We love things we love what they are.

A lot of preachers‘ kids are some of the most rebellious kids in the world. I never was like that.

You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do – and they don’t. They have prejudices. They may like Henry James, but what if you don’t want to write like Henry James? They may like John Irving, for instance, who’s the bore of all time.

If you’re teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are.

Because of our sacred regard for each human intellect, we consider the obtaining of an education to be a religious responsibility.

Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model.

The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.

I like school and I like learning.

Occasionally I’ve seen children become heavy-handed and insensitive when dealing with their aging parents, and it only caused resentment and hard feelings.

It’s much worse to read criticism about your son than yourself.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

When you revolutionize education, you’re taking the very mechanism of how people be smarter and do new things, and you’re priming the pump for so many incredible things.

Studies have identified a significant ‚skills gap‘ between what students are currently being taught and the skills employers are seeking in today’s global economy. Our children must be better prepared than they are now to meet the future challenges of our ever-changing world.

History has proven that each generation of Howard graduates will forge the way forward for our country and our world.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.

Creativity is the key to success in the future, and primary education is where teachers can bring creativity in children at that level.

None of my kids want to be actors. They are actually very interested in being musicians. I think they like the process of film from the outside. Mad is interested in editing. Pax loves music and deejaying.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

The last thing you want is to not be recognized for all of the hard work you put in.

Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may make you feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you feel the impact.

My husband’s a pediatrician, so he and I talk about parenting all the time. You can’t raise children who have more shame resilience than you do.

As a father and now a grandfather to three wonderful grandchildren, I know how magical the first year of a child’s life is but also how much hard work it takes. Being able to spend as much time as possible with your loved ones is absolutely vital, especially early on.

My belief is that we were put into this world of wonders and beauty with a special ability to appreciate them, in some cases to have the fun of taking a hand in developing them, and also in being able to help other people instead of overreaching them and, through it all, to enjoy life – that is, to be happy.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

In my divorce, I stood up and said to my ex-wife, ‚Hey, I messed up. This had nothing to do with you. I didn’t understand what marriage was. I cheated. I was wrong. We couldn’t fix it; it got worse. I stepped away because I didn’t want it to get any worse. You’re the mother of my kids – I don’t want to hate you.‘

You know, nothing is more important than education, because nowhere are our stakes higher; our future depends on the quality of education of our children today.

I was a disadvantaged child from a non-educated family, yet I had the advantage of being in the company of great teachers.

I didn’t go to university. Didn’t even finish A-levels. But I have sympathy for those who did.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.