I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.

Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.

A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.

No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher.

No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher.

I am bourgeois to the core and parochial beyond belief, and yet I am drawn to art and scholarship as read more

I am bourgeois to the core and parochial beyond belief, and yet I am drawn to art and scholarship as my anti-type, my shadow, the voice of distinction I never possessed. I don't think of myself as a teacher so much as an impersonator of profundities, inhabiting the wisdom of texts with the naked confidence that the value of the genius I espouse transcends the particular fraud that I am the one espousing it. And it doesn't even matter to me that no one seems to be listening; those who listen that I don't know about are enough to keep me going--soaring on the wings of borrowed metaphors.