Robert Coles Quotes & Sayings

We are the creature of language, and through language we affirm ourselves, we find out about the world, including ourselves, through words, and we share with one another through language. — Robert Coles

Where you read a book and when and with whom can make a big difference. — Robert Coles

Novels and stories are renderings of life; they cannot only keep us company, but admonish us, point us in new directions, or give us the courage to stay a given course. They can offer us kinsmen, kinswomen, comrades, advisors - offer us other eyes through which we might see ... Every ... student ... will all too quickly be beyond schooling, will be out there making a living and, too, just plain living - that is, trying to find and offer to others the affection and love that give purpose to our time spent here ... [Characters] can be cautionary figures ... who give us pause and help us in the private moments when we try to find our own bearings — Robert Coles

Be a good listener in the special way a story requires: note the manner of presentation; the development of plot, character; the addition of new dramatic sequences; the emphasis accorded to one figure or another in the recital; and the degree of enthusiam, of coherence, the narrator gives to his or her account. — Robert Coles

Abraham Lincoln did not go to Gettysburg having commissioned a poll to find out what would sell in Gettysburg. There were no people with percentages for him, cautioning him about this group or that group or what they found in exit polls a year earlier. When will we have the courage of Lincoln? — Robert Coles

Ambitious intelligence [is] a force that can demolish the 'heart's reasons' - namely, a warm empathy, a considerateness toward others, a willingness, even, to let them become one's teachers, however humble or troubled their lives. — Robert Coles