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Everybody keeps calling for Excellence — excellence not just in schooling, throughout society. But as soon as somebody or something stands out as Excellent, the other shout goes up: "Elitism!" And whatever produced that thing, whoever praises that result, is promptly put down. "Standing out" is undemocratic.

— Jacques Barzun

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More quotes by Jacques Barzun

The truth is, when all is said and done, one does not teach a subject, one teaches a student how to learn it.

Shaw does not merely decorate a proposition, but makes his way from point to point through new and difficult territory.

Bernard Shaw in Twilight (1943)

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

A person is not a democrat thanks to his ignorance of literature and the arts, nor an elitist because he or she has cultivated them.

The Culture We Deserve (1989)

Seeing clearly within himself and always able to dodge around the ends of any position, including his own, Shaw assumed from the start the dual role of prophet and gadfly.

Bernard Shaw in Twilight (1943)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jacques Barzun (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.