John W. Gardner Men Quotations

Nothing can be more readily disproved than the old saw, "You can't keep a good man down." Most human societies have been beautifully organized to keep good men down.

We have to face the fact that most men and women out there are more stale than they know, more bored than they care to admit.

More and more Americans feel threatened by runaway technology, by large-scale organization, by overcrowding. More and more Americans are appalled by the ravages of industrial progress, by the defacement of nature, by man-made ugliness. If our society continues at its present rate to become less livable as it becomes more affluent, we promise all to end up in sumptuous misery.

The idea for which this nation stands will not survive if the highest goal free man can set themselves is an amiable mediocrity. Excellence implies striving for the highest standards in every phase of life.

One man interacting creatively with others can move the world.

The man who once cursed his fate, now curses himself - and pays his psychoanalyst.

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.

Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community.

When hiring key employees, there are only two qualities to look for: judgement and taste. Almost everything else can be bought by the yard.

To sensible men, every day is a day of reckoning.

America's greatness has been the greatness of a free people who shared certain moral commitments. Freedom without moral commitment is aimless and promptly self-destructive.

When one may pay out over two million dollars to presidential and Congressional campaigns, the U.S. government is virtually up for sale.

The cynic says, "One man can't do anything". I say, "Only one man can do anything."