William Bennett Quotes (40 Quotes)


    Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that thankfulness is indeed a virtue.

    Our schools should get five years to get back to where they were in 1963. If they're still bad maybe we should declare educational bankruptcy, give the people their money and let them educate themselves and start their own schools.

    If I were a Jew watching what CNN just led in with, I might be a little upset, too. But CNN doesn't have the solicitude for Jews it has for Muslims. Your policy is not to show these cartoons that were shown in Denmark, but to show one after another of the most anti-Semitic cartoons they could come forward with.

    Our Transportation Department has followed the progress of the union contract negotiations closely so we were aware of the potential for a strike for many months. As a result we had been having informal conversations with Penn transportation personnel for well over two months in preparation for how we would respond.

    The current controversy that has arisen around comments I made on my radio show, based on a willful distortion of what I said, will take away from the serious discussion I wanted to engage in with the students and community at the University of Cincinnati,


    If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance. Children must learn to identify the forms and content of those traits.

    You could ... abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.

    pointing out that abortion should not be opposed for economic reasons any more than racism ... should be supported or opposed for economic reasons. Immoral policies are wrong because they are wrong, not because of an economic calculation.

    America has a serious drug problem, he says, but it's not the manufacture and use of methamphetamines that is the serious problem. He manages a dig at conservative William Bennett, whom he refers to as the former national drug czar and gambler, ... Using drugs is wrong not simply because drugs create medical problems it is wrong because drugs destroy one's moral sense. People addicted to drugs neglect their duties.


    Some of us in college, some of us in high school, you know, did things that we weren't particularly happy about or proud of later, speaking here for myself,


    It is our character that supports the promise of our future - far more than particular government programs or policies.

    Yes, I do feel that the University has dealt with this situation well. All eight of our buses are on the road during the peak commuting hours of the day. A part of our planning has included ensuring we have enough operators for our buses so we can keep them on the road for these extended hours and provide the additional service.

    I don't think people have the right to be angry, if they look at the whole thing. But if they get a selective part of my comment, I can see why they would be angry. If somebody thought I was advocating that, they ought to be angry. I would be angry.

    What you are going to see (Monday), I take it, is an unrehearsed president, a president without makeup, so to speak, standing in front of the grand jury getting some very tough questions, ... Late Edition.

    I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition ... and then said about it, it was morally reprehensible to recommend abortion of an entire group of people.


    America's support for human rights and democracy is our noblest export to the world.


    If it comes across that Clinton is weaseling the law and obscuring the truth, I think he's in more trouble,

    Anytime you have a strike it is a difficult situation and we hope an agreement can be reached quickly. In the mean time, we are prepared to continue to provide the additional services until the situation is resolved.

    If Senator Lott can provide a satisfactory explanation for his statement, this entire episode should be forgotten. If he cannot, he needs to step down as the Senate majority leader.

    In my position it is hard to say exactly how many students are affected but certainly a significant portion of the student body is affected.

    an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do.

    We've got to have candor and talk about these things while we reject wild hypotheses,

    The formation of character in young people is educationally a different task from and a prior task to, the discussion of the great, difficult ethical controversies of the day.

    But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down, ... The Book of Virtues.

    Happiness is like a cat, If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay not attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.

    Our common language is English. And our common task is to ensure that our non-English-speaking children learn this common language.

    I was putting forward a bad argument in order to put it down, ... They reported and emphasized only the abhorrent argument, not my shooting it down.

    Give yourself an even greater challenge than the one you are trying to master and you will develop the powers necessary to overcome the original difficulty.

    For children to take morality seriously they must be in the presence of adults who take morality seriously. And with their own eyes they must see adults take morality seriously.

    If we are surrounded by the trivial and the vicious, it is all too easy to make our peace with it.

    He will throw it right back in their faces. He knows more about it than they do. He's spent more time dealing with the problem, and he's actually solved the problem rather than pontificating about it from Capitol Hill.



    The elementary school must assume as its sublime and most solemn responsibility the task of teaching every child in it to read. Any school that does not accomplish this has failed.

    Now we have reason to be grateful once again that Al Gore is not the man in the White House, and never will be.

    The Irish say, you know, 'the merry-hearted boys make the best of all men,'


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