Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?

No matter what your current ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.

In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I'm going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here's a chance to grow.

Effort is one of those things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.

The best thing parents can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.

What did you learn today? What mistake did you make that taught you something? What did you try hard at today?

Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don't tell you where a student could end up.

Failure is information-we label it failure, but it's more like, 'This didn't work, I'm a problem solver, and I'll try something else.'

Important achievements require a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies. Plus allies in learning.

The wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior. The right kind motivates students to learn.

Exceptional people convert life's setbacks into future successes.

For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart.

I'm not interested in preserving the status quo

I don't mind not being cool.

Lennon was very helpful. What he taught me seems completely obvious: he expected people to treat each other well.

Of course I like to look at pretty girls in the street. What hot-blooded boy doesn't.

Oh, I get it," I said. "You're Evil Harry, lurking inside Good Harry. Right? And you only come out at night?

Come all ye that pass by, and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow.

The pulpit is no place for self-promotion. It is a great place for self-deprecation.

Helping those who have been struck by unforeseeable misfortunes is fundamentally different from making dependency a way of life.

The noblest motive is the public good.