“If you choose to live only in the world as you find it, you surrender too much.”

“You know more about your child than I can ever hope to know, what advice can you give me to make a better teacher for her?”

“Even though we long for community-for places of common vision, shared purpose, cooperative effort, and personal fulfillment within collective commitment-we most often settle for institutions. That is, we generally find ourselves in impersonal places characterized by interchangeable parts, hierarchy, competition, and layers of supervision.”

“We are not optimists because we can predict a bright and beautiful future, but we're not pessimists either, because the future is unknown and unknowable. We are, rather, active participants in possibility, willing workers in the fields of what could be, but is not yet. We are compelled by love- love of children and youth, love of a world in need of repair- and powered by hope. ”

“Teaching, if it is to be done well, must be built on vision and commitment; learning, if it is to be meaningful, depends on imagination, risk taking, intention, and invention.”

“You need to find a way to live your life, that it doesn't make a mockery of your values.”

“I'd rather marry lump of steaming horseshit than you." Lucy jutted her chin out."Smells better too.”