Happiness depends on our dispositions

"The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not our circumstances."

Martha Washington

What have Americans to be thankful for?

"What have Americans to be thankful for? More than any other people on the earth, we enjoy complete religious freedom, political freedom, social freedom. Our liberties are sacredly safeguarded by the Constitution of the United States, 'the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.' Yes, we Americans of today have been bequeathed a noble heritage. Let us pray that we may hand it down unsullied to our children and theirs."

B.C. Forbes in 1953

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mentioned in the article Made in the USA: Spoiled brats by Craig Smith in WorldNetDaily
Posted: November 20, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
retrieved 6/18/2007 from http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53028

Einstein on miracles

"There are only two ways to live your life: one is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein

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This was a signature line in the middle of an email that had been forwarded many times. I don't even know the person who had it as their signature, but Einstein can even bind strangers.

BTW, I choose to live my life in the latter of the two ways.

idealistic people

"Idealistic people tend to not be very pragmatic."

Garry Mayes in a conversation 8/25/2005

what our schools used to be

Given the many demands made of schools today, the wonder is not that they do so poorly, but that they accomplish so much. Our society has stuffed additional burdens into the time envelope of 180 six-hour days without regard to the consequences for learning. We agree with the Maine mathematics teacher who said, "The problem with our schools is not that they are not what they used to be, but that they are what they used to be." In terms of time, our schools are unchanged despite a transformation in the world around them.

from 1994 Department of Education report Prisoners of Time

retrieved May 28, 2007 from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/PrisonersOfTime/Dimensions.html

Things turn out best . . .

"Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out."

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as seen on a picture frame in Albertson's Grocery Store in Denton, TX

Education is not a preparation for life but life itself

"I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living."

My Pedagogic Creed by John Dewey
School Journal vol. 54 (January 1897), pp. 77-80
ARTICLE TWO. WHAT THE SCHOOL IS

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That's the closest I can come to an actual quote by Dewey, though many many places you'll see, "Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself."

If you know the source of the second quote, please comment and share.