David McCullough Jr. > Quotes

“Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.”
― David McCullough Jr.

“Climb mountains not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.”
― David McCullough Jr.

“And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life.”
― David McCullough Jr.

“Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it. Dream big. Work hard. Think for yourself. Love everything you love, everyone you love, with all your might. And do so, please, with a sense of urgency, for every tick of the clock subtracts from fewer and fewer.”
― David McCullough Jr.

“The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life is an achievement. To do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance.”
― David McCullough Jr.

“MEANWHILE, THERE’S THE New Millennium technology craze . . . holy moly, is there ever . . . the breathless infatuation with hi-def, 3D, 5G, glued to the hand, glued to the ear, twenty-first-century cyber gee-whizzery. They’re coming at us so fast—the gizmos, the doodads, the gimcracks, the wonderments—so ubiquitously, so overwhelmingly, we’ve not yet found how best to wrangle each new miracle into genuine usefulness.”
― David McCullough Jr., You Are Not Special

“Your planet, I’ll remind you, is not the center of its solar system, your solar system is not the center of its galaxy, your galaxy is not the center of the universe. In fact, astrophysicists assure us the universe has no center; therefore, you cannot be it.”
― David McCullough Jr.

“Anche se non sembra granché il colpo più duro che possiamo assestare alla morte è una vita ben vissuta. Una vita piena, felice, amorevole e fruttuosa. Per i viventi ogni momento può e dovrebbe avere bellezza e significato.”
― David McCullough Jr., You Are Not Special and Other Encouragements

“Teilhard”
― David McCullough Jr., You Are Not Special

“do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance. Don’t bother with work you don’t believe in...Resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction. Be worthy of your advantages. And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principal, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life. Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it. Dream big. Work hard. Think for yourself.”
― David McCullough Jr.

“Books, for example, the accrued capital of the human experience, all the wealth of the human mind, books help you think bigger and better, therefore you are bigger and better. You should read, then, all the time, wherever your interests take you. It’s too important not to.”
― David McCullough Jr., You Are Not Special

“Per tutti e per ognuno, l'universo esiste solo perché lui, lei o loro hanno una coscienza con cui concepirlo. Viviamo, perciò, entro i confini della nostra comprensione. Eliminate la coscienza ed eliminerete la grandiosa totalità del mondo.”
― David McCullough Jr., You Are Not Special and Other Encouragements