Jacques Barzun
Jacques Barzun
Jacques Martin Barzunwas a French-born American historian. Focusing on ideas and culture, he wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball and classical music. He was also known as a philosopher of education. In the book Teacher in America, Barzun influenced the training of schoolteachers in the United States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
Date of Birth30 November 1907
CountryUnited States of America
Jacques Barzun quotes about
historical details pages
No one has ever used historical examples, near or remote, with the detail, precision, and directness to be found in every page of Shaw.
hands two soul
On the one hand, society needs a common faith and vigorous institutions with the power to coerce; and on the other, the individual as a human soul or as the bearer of a new and possibly saving heresy, must be free. It is difficult enough to reconcile these two needs, but the problem holds another hazard: the need of action under the pressure of time.
hard-work depth may
To delve into history entails, besides the grievance of hard work, the danger that in the depths one may lose one’s scapegoats.
pride vanity static
Vanity is a static thing. It puts it faith in what it has, and is easily wounded. Pride is active, and satisfied only with what it can do, hence accustomed not to feel small stings.
baseball team school
Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game - and do it by watching first some high school or small-town teams.
morning fog long
It seems a long time since the morning mail could be called correspondence.
reading intellectual important
no subject of study is more important than reading…all other intellectual powers depend on it.
natural-elements may anarchy
We may complain and cavil at the anarchy which is the amateurs natural element, but in soberness we must agree that if the amateur did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.
hands history hats
[T]hat is the triumph of history - truth absolute is not at hand; the original with which to match the copy does not exist.
hate past self
To denounce does not free the self from what it hates, any more than ignoring the past shuts off its influence.
piano-music names piano-playing
The piano is the social instrument par excellence... drawing-room furniture, a sign of bourgeois prosperity, the most massive of the devices by which the young are tortured in the name of education and the grown-up in the name of entertainment.
science men games
Out of man's mind in free play comes the creation Science. It renews itself, like the generations, thanks to an activity which is the best game of homo ludens: science is in the strictest and best sense a glorious entertainment.
swings intellectual privilege
Since it is seldom clear whether intellectual activity denotes a superior mode of being or a vital deficiency, opinion swings between considering intellect a privilege and seeing it as a handicap
passion trying want
Education in the United States is a passion and a paradox. Millions want it, and commend it, and are busy about it. At the same time they degrade it by trying to get it free of charge and free of work.