Education quotations of the week (10-26-09)

This week’s topic: personal development and success.

He who starts behind in the great race of life must forever remain behind or run faster than the man in the front. (Benjamin E. Mays)

It is estimated that 90% of brain development occurs in the first three years of a child’s life. Children that are unprepared for kindergarten have a 10% chance of being able to read in the first grade. If you cannot read at grade level in the first grade, you have a 12% chance of reading at grade level in the fourth grade. And if you can’t read at grade level in the fourth grade, you have only a 2% chance of graduating from college. (Myles Brand)

One of the most significant facts about human nature may be that we all begin with the natural equipment to live a thousand kinds of lives and end having lived only one. (Clifford Geertz, from his article, ”The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man,” in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1966)

Few people are successful unless a lot of other people want them to be. (Charles Brower)

The single biggest danger in business and life, other than outright failure, is to be successful without being resolutely clear about why you are successful in the first place. (Robert Burgleman, Stanford Business Professor, quoted in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, page 213)