Charles William Eliot

“The human race has discovered that ceremony is the necessary outward expression of the inward secret emotions.”

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”

“All business proceeds on beliefs, or judgments of probabilities, and not on certainties.”

“The motive of the best work is not to secure a living... but to reach the joy of successful creative activity.”

“Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.”

“The world is full of people who are waiting for someone to come along and motivate them to be the people they wish they could be. These people are waiting for a bus on a street where no buses run.”

“A university is a society for the promotion of liberal culture.”

“In the modern world the intelligence of public opinion is the one indispensable condition of social progress.”

“A liberal education is the best training for a life of active usefulness.”

“Be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”

“It is the chief function of the university to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to train the next generation of leaders and investigators.”

“The university must be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning.”

“The only real safeguard of democracy is education.”