{"quotes":[{"text":"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expense of it,' [John] Adams wrote. 'There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.' Jefferson's fear was that without such a system of public education, the country would end up being ruled by a privileged elite that would recycle itself through a network of private institutions that entrenched their advantage.","author":"Fareed Zakaria","tags":["college","education","founding-fathers","liberal-arts"],"id":4216,"author_id":"Fareed+Zakaria"},{"text":"One night I begged Robin, a scientist by training, to watch Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' with me on PBS. He lasted about one act, then turned to me in horror: 'This is how you spend your days? Thinking about things like this?' I was ashamed. I could have been learning about string theory or how flowers pollinate themselves. I think his remark was the beginning of my crisis of faith. Like so many of my generation in graduate school, I had turned to literature as a kind of substitute for formal religion, which no longer fed my soul, or for therapy, which I could not afford.... I became interested in exploring the theory of nonfiction and in writing memoir, a genre that gives us access to that lost Middlemarch of reflection and social commentary.","author":"Mary Rose O'Reilley","tags":["liberal-arts","literature","science","spirituality","teaching"],"id":16641,"author_id":"Mary+Rose+O%27Reilley"},{"text":"Practical utility, however, is not the ultimate purpose of a liberal arts education. Its ultimate purpose is to help you learn to reflect in the widest and deepest sense, beyond the requirements of work and career: for the sake of citizenship, for the sake of living well with others, above all, for the sake of building a self that is strong and creative and free.","author":"William Deresiewicz","tags":["citizenship","creativity","education","liberal-arts","self"],"id":17775,"author_id":"William+Deresiewicz"},{"text":"College is about exposing students to many things and creating an aphrodisiac atmosphere so that they might fall in lifelong love with a few.","author":"David Brooks","tags":["curiosity","liberal-arts","openness"],"id":52484,"author_id":"David+Brooks"},{"text":"How decisive for the Christian educator, or for any educator of good will, is the revelation that man is made in the image and likeness of the three-Personed God? That is like asking what difference it will make to us if we keep in mind that a human being is made not for the processing of data, but for wisdom; not for the utilitarian satisfaction of appetite, but for love; not for the domination of nature, but for participation in it; not for the autonomy of an isolated self, but for communion.","author":"Anthony M. Esolen","tags":["catholic-education","educational-philosophy","liberal-arts"],"id":68735,"author_id":"Anthony+M.+Esolen"},{"text":"In a properly automated and educated world, then, machines may prove to be the true humanizing influence. It may be that machines will do the work that makes life possible and that human beings will do all the other things that make life pleasant and worthwhile. ","author":"Isaac Asimov","tags":["education","liberal-arts","machines"],"id":82842,"author_id":"Isaac+Asimov"},{"text":"He turned the presidency – and the President's House – into something it had not been before: a center of curiosity and inquiry, of vibrant institution that played informal but important roles in the broader life of the nation, from science to literature.","author":"Jon Meacham","tags":["curiosity","inquiry","leadership","liberal-arts"],"id":95779,"author_id":"Jon+Meacham"},{"text":"When a workman is unceasingly and exclusively engaged in the fabrication of one thing, he ultimately does his work with singular dexterity; but, at the same time, he loses the general faculty of applying his mind to the direction of the work. His every day becomes more of adroit and less industrious; so that it may be said of him, that, in proportion as the workman improves, the man is degraded. Alexis de Tocqueville.","author":"George F. Will","tags":["calling","flexibility","liberal-arts","vocation"],"id":149445,"author_id":"George+F.+Will"},{"text":"Important insights ought never to be limited to the group from which may arise.","author":"Richard J. Foster","tags":["curiosity","liberal-arts"],"id":155101,"author_id":"Richard+J.+Foster"},{"text":"Slowly, even though I thought it would never happen, New York lost its charm for me. I remember arriving in the city for the first time, passing with my parents through the First World's Club bouncers at Immigration, getting into a massive cab that didn't have a moment to waste, and falling in love as soon as we shot onto the bridge and I saw Manhattan rise up through the looks of parental terror reflected in the window. I lost my virginity in New York, twice (the second one wanted to believe he was the first so badly). I had my mind blown open by the combination of a liberal arts education and a drug-popping international crowd. I became tough. I had fun. I learned so much.But now New York was starting to feel empty, a great party that had gone on too long and was showing no sign of ending soon. I had a headache, and I was tired. I'd danced enough. I wanted a quiet conversation with someone who knew what load-shedding was.","author":"Mohsin Hamid","tags":["conversation","drugs","empty","headache","immigration","liberal-arts","load-shedding","manhattan","new-york","party","tired"],"id":193172,"author_id":"Mohsin+Hamid"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":22,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}