Mark Van Doren

I have always had the greatest respect for students. There is nothing I hate more than condescension__he attitude that they are inferior to you. I always assume they have good minds.

The job of the poet is to render the world - to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do.

The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.

There is one thing we can do and the happiest people are those who do it to the limit of their ability. We can be completely present. We can be all here. We can ... give all our attention to the opportunity before us.

Wit is the only wall Between us and the dark.

For Tolstoy . . . anything that human beings do has its glory. . . . I think he can be said to have hated nothing that ever happened.

Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.