Professor Quotes

You ultimately judge the civility of a society not by how it treats the rich, the powerful, the protected and the highly esteemed, but by how it treats the poor, the disfavored and the disadvantaged.

Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage.

Call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically, that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.

The greatest evil of American slavery was not involuntary servitude but rather the narrative of racial differences we created to legitimate slavery. Because we never dealt with that evil, I don't think slavery ended in 1865, it just evolved.

If any American really believes that Obamacare is going to control costs, I've got some real estate in Whitewater, Arkansas I'd like to sell them.

In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening.

So rather than thinking, oh, I'm going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here's a chance to grow.

Effort is one of those things that gives meaning to life.

Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.

The best thing parents can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.

No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid

We have avoided in recent years talking openly and honestly about race out of fear that it will alienate and polarize. In my own view, it’s our refusal to deal openly and honestly with race that leads us to keep repeating these cycles of exclusion and division, and rebirthing a caste-like system that we claim we’ve left behind

Exploiting the stupidity of the American voter is fun and easy: kinda like squeezing a lemon.

We live in a country that talks about being the home of the brave and the land of the free, and we have the highest incarceration rate in the world.

It is indeed a radical act of love just to sit down and be quiet for a time by yourself.

Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don't tell you where a student could end up.

The nature of the criminal justice system has changed.

It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.

If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.

No matter what your current ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.

The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.

You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

If you can't swallow your pride, you can't lead.

Even the highest mountain had animals that step on it.

Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.

Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.

Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness.

It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding.

Wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that's what you've wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that's what's on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, "how are you going to handle it?" .... Like it or not, this moment is all we really have to work with.

Failure is information-we label it failure, but it's more like, 'This didn't work, I'm a problem solver, and I'll try something else.'

Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done.

Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?

The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.

Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives.

It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation, and healing.

You are either in the Word and the Word is conforming you to the image of Jesus Christ, or you are in the world and the world is squeezing you into its mold.

Oppressed groups are frequently placed in the situation of being listened to only if we frame our ideas in the language that is familiar to and comfortable for a dominant group. This requirement often changes the meaning of our ideas and works to elevate the ideas of dominant groups.

Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.

The Bureau of Justice reports that one in three black male babies born this century will go to jail or prison - that is an absolutely astonishing statistic. And it ought to be terrorizing to not just to people of color, but to all of us.

We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent.

If we are honest with ourselves, most of us will have to admit that we live out our lives in an ocean of fear.

Teaching that impacts is not head to head, but heart to heart.

Important achievements require a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies. Plus allies in learning.

A belief is something you will argue about. A conviction is something you will die for.

When we're done with employer-based health insurance, it will have as much life in it as Jimmy Hoffa.

Just watch this moment, without trying to change it at all.

What is happening? What do you feel? What do you see? What do you hear?

Teacher who make Physics boring are criminals

We've all been acculturated into accepting the inevitability of wrongful convictions, unfair sentences, racial bias, and racial disparities and discrimination against the poor.

Data isn't information; information isn't knowledge; knowledge isn't wisdom.

The typical American voter is so stupid, his dog teaches him tricks.

I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers make, and all the people those...prayers were destined to affect...we would be so paralyzed with awe...that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives.

Whenever society begins to create policies and laws rooted in fear and anger, there will be abuse and injustice.

Our culture has filled our heads but emptied our hearts, stuffed our wallets but starved our wonder. It has fed our thirst for facts but not for meaning or mystery. It produces "nice" people, not heroes.

Has it ever struck you ... that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going? It’s really all memory ... except for each passing moment.

The wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior.

The right kind motivates students to learn.

For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value.

Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds.