George H. W. Bush

I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war.

I think in defeat you grope for things that are happy, and it’s hard.

Lincoln said you cannot be President without spending some item on your knees. I have repeated that and a bunch of Atheists got all over me. Wait a minute. Does that mean that you cannot be President if you are an Atheist? I say yea that does mean that.

One of the good things about the way the Gulf War ended in 1991 is, you’d see the Vietnam veterans marching with the Gulf War veterans.

I am not one who – who flamboyantly believes in throwing a lot of words around.

I have survivor’s curiosity, I guess.

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.

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

I was a great student. I was good at everything.

I’ve seen with my own students, community colleges offer an affordable route to four-year college degrees and good paying jobs.

The function of this school is custodial. It’s here to keep these kids off the streets until the girls are big enough to get pregnant and the boys are old enough to go out and hold up a gas station.

That man is best educated who knows the greatest number of things that are so, and who can do the greatest number of things to help and heal the world.

You must unlearn what you have learned.

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.

Most of all we need an education system which will create an educated mind. This is a mind not simply a repository of information and skills, but a mind that is a source of creative skepticism, characterized by a willingness to challenge old assumptions and to be challenged, a spaciousness of outlook, and convictions that are deeply held, but which new facts and new experiences can always modify. It means an educational system which does not simply equip the students to adjust to society, but which enables the student to challenge and to modify, and at times reject, if necessary, the received wisdom of his elders.

My last year in high school, I worked at a bindery, side by side with grown-ups who had been there their entire lives. Knowing that I, as a 16-year-old, was getting the same income and doing the same work… it gave me respect for those workers. But it also gave me an understanding that more is needed for folks to be able to cobble together a decent life on minimum wage.

It is a truism that education is no longer a luxury. Education in this day and age is a necessity.

Studying in countries like China isn’t only about your prospects in the global marketplace. It’s not just about whether you can compete with your peers in other countries to make America stronger. It’s also about whether you can come together and work together with them to make our world stronger. It’s about the friendships you make, the bonds of trust you establish and the image of America that you project to the rest of the world.

We believe, that is, you and I, that education is not an expense. We believe it is an investment.

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

Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one’s enemies.