Quotes from Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.

Yale is a crucible in American life for the accommodation of intellectual achievement, of wisdom, of refinement, with the democratic ideals of openness, of social justice and of equal opportunity.

To take the measure of oneself by reference to one's colleagues leads to envy or complacency rather than constructive self-examination.

Yale's greatness carries an urgent need to guard against the fall of excellence into exclusivity, of refinement into preciousness, of elegance into class and convention.