Max Lerner Quotes

A collection of quotes by Max Lerner.

Max Lerner (1902-1992) was a prominent American journalist and educator. He served as a columnist for the New York Post and the Chicago Daily News, and authored numerous books on politics, society, and psychology. Lerner was known for his insightful and progressive commentary, advocating for civil rights, international cooperation, and social justice. He taught at Harvard University for over two decades, influencing generations of students with his intellectual prowess and engaging teaching style. Lerner's work profoundly impacted American public discourse, shaping public opinion and challenging conventional wisdom.

Despite the success cult, men are most deeply moved not by t

Despite the success cult, men are most deeply moved not by the reaching of the goal but by the grandness of the effort involved in getting there -- or failing to get there.

The turning point in the process of growing up is when you d

The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.

Strength

A world technology means either a world government or world

A world technology means either a world government or world suicide.

Technology

We all run on two clocks. One is the outside clock, which ti

We all run on two clocks. One is the outside clock, which ticks away our decades and brings us ceaselessly to the dry season. The other is the inside clock, where you are your own timekeeper and determine your own chronology, your own internal weather and your own rate of living. Sometimes the inner clock runs itself out long before the outer one, and you see a dead man going through the motions of living.

Time

I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.

I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.

Potential

We cannot live by power, and a culture that seeks to live by

We cannot live by power, and a culture that seeks to live by it becomes brutal and sterile. But we can die without it.

Power

Next to the striking of fire and the discovery of the wheel,

Next to the striking of fire and the discovery of the wheel, the greatest triumph of what we call civilization was the domestication of the human male.

Men

A President is best judged by the enemies he makes when he h

A President is best judged by the enemies he makes when he has really hit his stride.

Presidency

The tourist who moves about to see and hear and open himself

The tourist who moves about to see and hear and open himself to all the influences of the places which condense centuries of human greatness is only a man in search of excellence.

Travel

Having a thirteen-year-old in the family is like having a ge

Having a thirteen-year-old in the family is like having a general-admission ticket to the movies, radio and TV. You get to understand that the glittering new arts of our civilization are directed to the teen-agers, and by their suffrage they stand or fall.

Youth

The crime of book purging is that it involves a rejection of

The crime of book purging is that it involves a rejection of the word. For the word is never absolute truth, but only man's frail and human effort to approach the truth. To reject the word is to reject the human search.

Censorship

When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember tha

When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil.

Evil

The real sadness of fifty is not that you change so much but

The real sadness of fifty is not that you change so much but that you change so little.

Age

You may call for peace as loudly as you wish, but where ther

You may call for peace as loudly as you wish, but where there is no brotherhood there can in the end be no peace.

Peace

Either men will learn to live like brothers, or they will di

Either men will learn to live like brothers, or they will die like beasts.

Men

Despite the success cult, men are most deeply moved not by t

Despite the success cult, men are most deeply moved not by the reaching of the goal but by the grandness of the effort involved in getting there - or failing to get there.

Success