John F. Kennedy

No task before our nation is more important than expanding and improving the educational opportunities of all our people. The concept that every American deserves the opportunity to attain the highest level of education of which he is capable is not new to this Administration – it is a traditional ideal of democracy. But it is time that we moved toward the fulfillment of this ideal with more vigor and less delay. For education is both the foundation and the unifying force of our democratic way of life – it is the mainspring of our economic and social progress – it is the highest expression of achievement in our society, ennobling and enriching human life. In short, it is at the same time the most profitable investment society can make and the richest reward it can offer.

In our democracy every young person should have an equal opportunity to obtain a higher education, regardless of his station in life or financial means.

The arts are at the center of a nation’s purpose and a test of civilization.

Student loans have been helpful to many. But they offer neither incentive nor assistance to those students who, by reason of family or other obligations, are unable or unwilling to go deeper into debt. … It is, moreover, only prudent economic and social policy for the public to share part of the costs of the long period of higher education for those whose development is essential to our national economic and social well-being. All of us share in the benefits – all should share in the costs.

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. Our requirements for world leadership, our hopes for economic growth, and the demands of citizenship itself in an era such as this all require the maximum development of every young American’s capacity. The human mind is our fundamental resource.

Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the man who can’t read, he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.

Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

Sometimes you get educated by being really bothered by things and you have to educate yourself on how to respond.

In the schoolroom her quick mind had taken readily that strong starch of unexplained rules and disconnected facts which saves ignorance from any painful sense of limpness.

An educated person, I think, is one who not only knows a lot, but knows how to do a lot of things.

In the past, there has been a stigma surrounding community colleges, where they were seen as a less viable option because they are not four-year universities. I know differently and so do the millions of people across the country who have received an affordable, quality higher education at community college.

There was no word dyslexia when I was a kid. You were just dumb.

The most crucial use of knowledge and education is to understand the importance of developing a good heart.

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.

All students can learn and succeed, but not on the same day in the same way.

As a community college professor for over twenty years, I’ve seen the determination, resilience and dedication of countless students. Regardless of circumstances, they show up. They work hard. They believe anything is possible.

Education can’t focus only on developing our wonderful brain. We also need warm-heartedness. This is my view.

Many of my students don’t know that I’m second lady of the United States… because, you know, it’s a community college.

Education not just preparation for life, but part if life itself-a continuous art.

You must work on improving your skills every day and never quit.