Education quotations of the week (10-12-09)

I’m a big fan of interesting quotations, so I thought I’d post a few at the start of each week. They’ll be connected to education in some way, including topics like school leadership, the pursuit of knowledge, and preparing for the future. If you have any you’d like to add, please share them in the comments section!

You do not come to the university to learn how to “build a case” for some ideology, but clear-sightedly to see as much of the whole as you can. Not to sharpen your beliefs, but to see as others see. To learn to ask: “Is that true? Maybe there’s something to what she just said. Let me think about it. That’s interesting. Maybe I should change my mind. I changed my mind.” These are the sentences of the university. (Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, 2005 commencement address)

What did you learn in school today? Did you learn how to believe or did you learn how to think? (Ralph Nader’s father)

When I get new information, I rethink my position. What, sir, do you do with new information? (John Maynard Keynes)

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. (Aristotle)

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. (Robert Frost)