Where a generation ago people felt entitled to a chance at education, they now feel entitled to the credential affirming that they have completed a course of study regardless of their actual mastery.

The dominant mood of contemporary American culture is the self-celebration of the peasantry.

One's worth and self-regard ought to come from individual competitive performance, not from group identity. Pride based on clan or tribal connections is atavistic. It appeals to people who fear they cannot succeed as individuals, and by diverting their energies it all but ensures they will not succeed as individuals.

In my mind, partial failure is always better than delusory success.

The very essence of school is elitism. Schools exist to teach, to test, to rank hierarchically to promote the idea that knowing and understanding more is better than knowing and understanding less.

Any departure from fact is the first step on a slippery slope toward unbelievability.

A poet laureate of adolescent sexuality and middle-age longing.

Opportunity does not need to be exactly equal. It needs only to exist. For the talented and motivated, that will be enough...The vital thing is not to maximize everyone's performance, but to ensure maximal performance from the most talented, the ones who can make a difference.

The fact is that some people are better than others - smarter, harder working, more learned, more productive, harder to replace.

Ultimately it is the yearning to believe that anyone can be brought up to college level that has brought colleges down to everyone's level.

No longer a mark of distinction or proof of achievement, a college education is these days a mere rite of passage, a capstone to adolescent party time.