Marc Aronson > Quotes

“We put our children through their paces in school not so that they will learn something, or master something, or meet any standards. No. We give them tools so that they can experience the joy, the passion, of creating. All we are doing is saying, “Here, if you know this, there is more you can make; there is another path you can map; there is another song you can compose.” School—from pre-K to postdoc programs—exists so that we can all build more from within ourselves and with our colleagues.”
― Marc Aronson

“This is a book about questioning what others believe to be true, not accepting ideas just because famous people say they are right. I think knowledge is more like a wave than a switch. Only very rarely do we go from being totally wrong to totally right--as a light turns off and on. Instead, what we learned before allows us to move on to what we can see next. We can surf ahead, but there will always be another challenge, another crest, another setp. We must always keep thinking and asking new questions.”
― Marc Aronson, If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge

“If we are going to die anyway...why be cautious? Why not risk all now, at this moment, in this adventure?”
― Marc Aronson, Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado

“A walk with a two-year-old is very Zen; it is not about the end but the journey. He needs to pet the dog someone is walking; to roll down the slight incline to the church basement, and then roll again, and again, and again; to remind me of the place where the wasps (he calls them bees) live, then zoom past it.”
― Marc Aronson, Guys Write for Guys Read

“If any man accuseth me to my face, I will answer him with my mouth; but my tail is good enough to return an answer to such who traduceth [slanders] me behind my back.

—Sir Walter Ralegh”
― Marc Aronson, Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado

“Even such is time, which takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, and all we have,
And pays us but with age, and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave
When we have wandered all our ways
Shuts up the story of our days.
And from which earth and grave and dust,
The Lord will raise me up I trust.

—Sir Walter Ralegh's poetry”
― Marc Aronson, Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado

“But he would give the Spainish no satisfaction. When they offered him a drink, he smashed the glass and ate the shards, preferring his own English blood to their sweet wine. He died soon after.”
― Marc Aronson

“For who so reaps renown above the rest,
With heaps of hate, shall surely be oppressed.

—Sir Walter Ralegh's poetry”
― Marc Aronson, Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado

“Socialists, communists, fascists all believe in an ever stronger government. Anarchists think just the opposite. They want to eliminate central government entirely so that people would live in small collectives where their voices could be heard and where all would work together for the good of all.”
― Marc Aronson, Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, & the Invention of Modern Photojournalism

“Whenever America faces threats, there will be those who offer us security – at a price. That price may be your privacy or the freedom of a classmate or the life of a leader.”
― Marc Aronson, Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies

“All life is an experiment.”
― Marc Aronson, Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies

“when he was”
― Marc Aronson, For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever

“Today, Americans face intense terrorist threats and thus hard choices...”
― Marc Aronson, Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies