College isn’t the place to go for any ideas.
—Helen Keller, 1916
[Colleges and universities] have become intellectually monochrome purveyors of
groupthink.
—George Will, 2020
A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.
Hence university education.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903
A university develops all abilities, including the foolishness.
—Anton Chekhov, 1921
Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education
positively fortifies it.
—Stephen Vizinczey, 1975
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
—John Ciardi, 1966
Nature is not organized in the way universities are.
—Russell Lincoln Ackoff, 1970
There is a tolerably good agreement about what a university is not. It is not a place of
professional education.
—John Stuart Mill, 1867
14
A young man passes from our public schools to the universities, ignorant almost of the
elements of every branch of useful knowledge.
—Charles Babbage, 1830
Academe, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
Academy, n. [from Academe] A modern school where football is taught.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906
Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love: close enough on the surface but […]
not exactly the same thing.
—Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2010
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the
form of inert facts.
—Henry Adams, 1907
Bachelor’s degrees make pretty good placemats if you get ’em laminated.
—Jeph Jacques, 2005
14
From his inaugural address as the rector of the University of St. Andrews.
62
On Education, Reading, and Knowledge
—Helen Keller, 1916
[Colleges and universities] have become intellectually monochrome purveyors of
groupthink.
—George Will, 2020
A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.
Hence university education.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903
A university develops all abilities, including the foolishness.
—Anton Chekhov, 1921
Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education
positively fortifies it.
—Stephen Vizinczey, 1975
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
—John Ciardi, 1966
Nature is not organized in the way universities are.
—Russell Lincoln Ackoff, 1970
There is a tolerably good agreement about what a university is not. It is not a place of
professional education.
—John Stuart Mill, 1867
14
A young man passes from our public schools to the universities, ignorant almost of the
elements of every branch of useful knowledge.
—Charles Babbage, 1830
Academe, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
Academy, n. [from Academe] A modern school where football is taught.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906
Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love: close enough on the surface but […]
not exactly the same thing.
—Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2010
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the
form of inert facts.
—Henry Adams, 1907
Bachelor’s degrees make pretty good placemats if you get ’em laminated.
—Jeph Jacques, 2005
14
From his inaugural address as the rector of the University of St. Andrews.
62
On Education, Reading, and Knowledge