I feel no different than I felt at 99, 98 or 97. Just because you live a long time, you get all this attention. Just because you survived? Of course, I survived a lot.
BEL KAUFMANWhen giving comes directly from the heart, it can never disappoint or embarrass.
More Bel Kaufman Quotes
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The preciousness of every moment is emphasized with every tick of the clock. Isn’t it a magnificent day today?
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People ate bread made of the shells of peas because there was no flour.
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Laughter keeps you healthy. You can survive by seeing the humor in everything. Thumb your nose at sadness; turn the tables on tragedy.
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One of my students had written wistfully of a dream-school that would have “windows with trees in them.
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Education can’t make us all leaders, but it can teach us which leader to follow.
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“Let it be a challenge to you” means you’re stuck with it; “interpersonal relationships” is a fight between kids; “ancillary civic agencies for supportive discipline” means call the cops.
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I so enjoy being old because for the first time I don’t have to do anything-work, teach, study. I feel very good about myself-and at my age I can say no to anything now if I don’t want to do it. What a liberating word.
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Love is the ultimate giving, an expression of one’s best self.
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My mother, for example, has the pleasant notion that my day consists of nodding graciously to the rustle of starched curtsies and a chorus of respectful voices bidding me good morning.
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Learning is a process of mutual discovery for teacher and pupil. Keep an open mind to their unexpected responses.
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Teachers try to make us feel lower than themselves, maybe because this is because they feel lower than outside people. One teacher told me to get out of the room and never come back, which I did.
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Best marks go to cheaters and memorizers. Marks depend on memorizing and not on real knowledge. When you cram into your head for a test you may get a high mark but forget it the next day. That’s not an education.
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I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.
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To the young, cliches seem freshly minted.
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The clerical work is par for the course. “Keep on file in numerical order” means throw in wastebasket. You’ll soon learn the language.
BEL KAUFMAN