Gardner, John William

US activist and administrator

president of Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 1955-1965

Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare 1965-1968

chairman of Urban Coalition 1968-1970

founder and 1st chairman of Common Cause 1970-1977

• "Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage."
• "When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied,'Only stand out of my light.'Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light."
• "The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."
• "Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the nonpharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality."
• "The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept."