"I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance."

“In Memory of Those Who Died Waiting for the Bell”

“With me they get a solid foundation, the disciplines of learning. In my class they don't get away with hot air discussions and exchanging their opinions and describing their experiences. What opinions can they have? What have they experienced? What do they know? That's an affront! They learn what I know.”

“We got this jerky sub. she don't know a thing and she's trying to teach it.”

“Mythology is studied in the school system because most of us come from it.”

“One of my students had written wistfully of a dream-school that would have "windows with trees in them.”

“A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil's environment who treats him with respect.”