Quotations

Hi Safarians! Just thought I'd post all my collected quotations from the speakers before our Stanford Mag stuff is due. I plan, at some point, to combine my list with Shruti and Janelle's, eliminate the overlapping ones, and get them up on our Google site. I made the funnier ones green. Enjoy...

Stanford Safari 2008 Sophomore College Quotations

University Organist Robert
“I tent to avoid organists. They’re very boring people.”
-On whether there are groups of organists that meet for conventions

University President Gerhard Casper
“An authority with very little authority” who’s responsible for everything.
-On describing how the university president is like a major CEO

“It is a ridiculous process—and you can quote me on that.”
-On faculty appointments

“All impressions are first impressions, and they are often the only impressions.”
-On giving speeches

“Poor Hennessey… He has to worry about appearing on YouTube.”
-On describing the changes in how public figures are judged

“That’s saying to a group of people, ‘I’m not your president.’”
-On what happens if you take a side on an issue

“In the end, what matters is teaching, learning, research... Everything else is just ‘fluff.’”

Peter Bing
“The Holy Triad.”
-On protecting the three most important trustee responsibilities

Protect the institution as a “marketplace of ideas.” “Represent the best of a free society.”
-On the duties of a trustee

“It’s fun to get involved.”
-Advice

Isaac Stein
“When we need to, we can change quickly.” (But usually no…)
-On the Board

“Remembering to think long term.”
-On the most challenging thing to do as board member

Coach Harbaugh
“If we could, we’d all be sittin’ around a campfire. Naked.”

“We support no other cause than the greatness and excellence of Stanford football.”

Doug Osheroff
“You don’t change, they change.”
-On seeing old friends at high school reunions

“Ahh… So many uses.”
-On gunpowder

“Chance will give you opportunities. The question is, what will you do with those opportunities.”

Kenneth Arrow
“My handwriting was very very bad.”

“Universities will be here for a long time, and they don’t become non-functional.”

“I realized economic forecasting wasn’t much worse than weather forecasting.”

“He should have understood that academic freedom is for professors, not for university presidents.”
-On Summer’s comment at Harvard

President Hennessey
“The Band is a unique Stanford tradition.”

“Occasionally, people do really bad things.”
-On the worst part of his job

“Talking to people about Stanford.”
-On the best part of his job

“Government is not going to solve any problems that are researched-based.”

“You ridiculous SOB! … You can’t do that, you can’t do that.”
-On limiting what you want to say sometimes as president

“Recovering.”
-On how he spends his summers

“Something that has pasta in it.”
-Favorite food

Favorite places: The Quad when it’s quiet, Mausoleum, Cactus Garden, Angel of Grief, Cantor

Larry Kramer
“When we went to Michigan, my first wife discovered it wasn’t Chicago she hated.”
-Most depressing quotation of the trip

“The difference between the students who want to do good, and the students who want to do well.”

“It’s like pornography: you’ll know it when you see it.”
-Quoting someone else

“Law is more like an art than a science.”

“You’re joking! What, you think you’re going to get mugged by a squirrel?”
-On the crime problem in the parking lot, after coming from NYC

“What, are they all drunk inside their rooms? With the door open.”
-About campus seeming dead on a Saturday night

Favorite place: New Guinea Sculpture Garden

Mark Mancall
“The Dalai Lama once said to me…”

Rich Skalski, Pest Control
“The whole attic was filled with raccoon poop. It was the grossest thing I’d ever seen.”

Maggie Kimball
Likes chocolate.

Dean Shaw
“We make judgments about admitting students because we believe they can be successful here. Period.”

“In fact, this process has a heart.”
-About accepting students from adverse backgrounds

David Demerest
“Out of the blue, I get a call from Debra Zumwalt.”

“And this is one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.”

“My job revolves around advancing and protecting Stanford’s reputation.”

“Any time a campaign is talking more about campaign strategy than issues… they’re having problems.”

“Reputation is whether you kept the promise.”
-On the reputation of a great university keeping the promise of a great education

David Harris
“Mistake? Mistake is wearing brown shoes with a black suit.”
-On how the Vietnam War can’t be sidestepped like a mistake

“Well, that’s fine talk for a guy who burns babies for a living.”
-What he said to David Packard, who worked in defense, at a Board of Trustees meeting

“So much of what the sixties was about was learning to take risks.”

“At some point you have to reach out and claim your life.”

“Look, I’m giving you four million dollars each year by not being student body president.”
-What he says to people calling from SU asking for money

“The first and foremost challenge we have as human beings is how to be our own person.”

“The scary part about Stanford for me is how it’s all so goddamn corporate.”

“The first step towards liberation is organizing yourself.”

Zimbardo
“I couldn’t believe God could take these kids, so I thought it was the Devil.”
-On the children’s hospital in the NYC ghettos

“The power of institutions over the individuals in them.”
-Brief description of the Stanford Prison Experiment

Dr. Richard Saller
“We’re no longer the subordinate of Cal. We even win football games.”

Phillip Pizzo
“Rather than learning it all, learn a roadmap to help you get there.”
-On how practices change so constantly

“At Stanford, we are not trying to just train physicians, we are trying to change the world.”

“Pick something inspirational for you.”
-Advice

“This incestuous relationship with industry only makes it worse.”
-On pharmaceutical companies and the Med School

Cantor: Sally and Anne Katherine
“And then the cadavers got in there…”
-About the history of the old anatomy building

David Rasch
“I don’t become their lawyer… I lay out their rights.”
-On his job as University Ombudsman

“Find someone you can talk to if someone’s bothering you.”
-Advice; it’s important to at least be able to say what you want, even if you don’t succeed at getting it