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Top 25 Mark Van Doren Quotes (2025 Update)

Mark Van Doren Quote: “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”

1. “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”

— Mark Van Doren

Featured in: Appreciation Quotes, Teacher Quotes, Teaching Quotes, School Quotes, Back-to-School Quotes

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Our best chance for happiness is education.”

2. “Our best chance for happiness is education.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment exactly proportional to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow, when I know more, I recall that piece of knowledge and use it better.”

3. “Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment exactly proportional to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow, when I know more, I recall that piece of knowledge and use it better.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “There is one thing we can do, and the happiest of people are those who do it to the limit of their ability. We can be completely present.”

4. “There is one thing we can do, and the happiest of people are those who do it to the limit of their ability. We can be completely present.”

— Mark Van Doren

Featured in: Carpe Diem Quotes

Mark Van Doren Quote: “If you look around the table and you can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you.”

5. “If you look around the table and you can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.”

6. “Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “The connectedness of things is what the educator contemplates to the limit of his capacity. No human capacity is great enough to permit a vision of the world as simple, but if the educator does not aim at the vision no one else will, and the consequences are dire when no one does.”

7. “The connectedness of things is what the educator contemplates to the limit of his capacity. No human capacity is great enough to permit a vision of the world as simple, but if the educator does not aim at the vision no one else will, and the consequences are dire when no one does.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Memory performs the impossible for man; holds together past and present, gives continuity and dignity to human life.”

8. “Memory performs the impossible for man; holds together past and present, gives continuity and dignity to human life.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “A classic is a book that remains in print.”

9. “A classic is a book that remains in print.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “There are two statements about human beings that are true: that all human beings are alike, and that all are different. On those two facts all human wisdom is founded.”

10. “There are two statements about human beings that are true: that all human beings are alike, and that all are different. On those two facts all human wisdom is founded.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Respect for the Truth is an acquired taste.”

11. “Respect for the Truth is an acquired taste.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Weightless in water, swift as the wind, Subtle of purpose – a feather blown – I go with my oarsmen where they will, My beautiful body and theirs all one.”

12. “Weightless in water, swift as the wind, Subtle of purpose – a feather blown – I go with my oarsmen where they will, My beautiful body and theirs all one.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “I have always had the greatest respect for students. There is nothing I hate more than condescension – the attitude that they are inferior to you. I always assume they have good minds.”

13. “I have always had the greatest respect for students. There is nothing I hate more than condescension – the attitude that they are inferior to you. I always assume they have good minds.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.”

14. “Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Wisdom before experience is only words; wisdom after experience is of no avail.”

15. “Wisdom before experience is only words; wisdom after experience is of no avail.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “An unexamined idea, to paraphrase Socrates, is not worth having and a society whose ideas are never explored for possible error may eventually find its foundations insecure.”

16. “An unexamined idea, to paraphrase Socrates, is not worth having and a society whose ideas are never explored for possible error may eventually find its foundations insecure.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “The art of reading is the art of adopting the pace the author has set. Some books are fast and some are slow, but no book can be understood if it is taken at the wrong speed.”

17. “The art of reading is the art of adopting the pace the author has set. Some books are fast and some are slow, but no book can be understood if it is taken at the wrong speed.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth.”

18. “Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “I love the fall. I love it because of the smells that you speak of; and also because things are dying, things that you don’t have to take care of anymore, and the grass stops growing.”

19. “I love the fall. I love it because of the smells that you speak of; and also because things are dying, things that you don’t have to take care of anymore, and the grass stops growing.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “It’s a curious thing. I suppose most people think of artists as impatient but I don’t know of any first-rate artist who hasn’t manifested in his career an appalling patience, a willingness to wait and to do his best now in the expectation that next year he will do better.”

20. “It’s a curious thing. I suppose most people think of artists as impatient but I don’t know of any first-rate artist who hasn’t manifested in his career an appalling patience, a willingness to wait and to do his best now in the expectation that next year he will do better.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “When it aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love, though we must love it because we have no other, and to fail to love it is not to exist at all.”

21. “When it aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love, though we must love it because we have no other, and to fail to love it is not to exist at all.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “To fail to love is not to exist at all.”

22. “To fail to love is not to exist at all.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “The literature of the world has exerted its power by being translated.”

23. “The literature of the world has exerted its power by being translated.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “There is no appeal from the ways of the world, which must continue on its own terms or take us all down with it into chaos and confusion.”

24. “There is no appeal from the ways of the world, which must continue on its own terms or take us all down with it into chaos and confusion.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “The job of the poet is to render the world-to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do.”

25. “The job of the poet is to render the world-to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “The first thing to do about a problem is to recognize it; the second thing is to state it; the third thing is to solve it.”

26. “The first thing to do about a problem is to recognize it; the second thing is to state it; the third thing is to solve it.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “Great periods of poetry begin with an inordinate self-consciousness, and only gradually attain to the natural.”

27. “Great periods of poetry begin with an inordinate self-consciousness, and only gradually attain to the natural.”

— Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren Quote: “To be what no one ever was, to be what everyone has been: Freedom is the mean of those extremes that fence all effort in.”

28. “To be what no one ever was, to be what everyone has been: Freedom is the mean of those extremes that fence all effort in.”

— Mark Van Doren

Appreciation Quotes

Appreciation Quotes

Carpe Diem Quotes

Carpe Diem Quotes

Teaching Quotes

Teaching Quotes

Appreciation Quotes

Appreciation Quotes

Carpe Diem Quotes

Carpe Diem Quotes

Teaching Quotes

Teaching Quotes

Back-to-School Quotes

Back-to-School Quotes

Teacher Appreciation Quotes

Teacher Appreciation Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

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