William Deresiewicz
American essayist and literary critic; taught English at Yale University from 1998 to 2008; author of A Jane Austen Education, Excellent Sheep, The Death of the Artist and The End of Solitude.
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William Deresiewicz did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsThat’s the first half of the lecture: the idea that true leadership means being able to think for yourself and act on your convictions.
↗Solitude and Leadership (The American Scholar)theamericanscholar.org 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsMultitasking, in short, is not only not thinking, it impairs your ability to think. Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it.
↗Solitude and Leadership (The American Scholar)theamericanscholar.org 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut it seems to me that solitude is the very essence of leadership.
↗Solitude and Leadership (The American Scholar)theamericanscholar.org 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 21 months earlier
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Their wordsThe first disadvantage of an elite education, as I learned in my kitchen that day, is that it makes you incapable of talking to people who aren’t like you.
↗The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (The American Scholar)theamericanscholar.org 1st of 5 in this piece
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Our reading
An elite education gives the chance to be rich but takes away the valuable chance not to be
Their wordsAn elite education gives you the chance to be rich—which is, after all, what we’re talking about—but it takes away the chance not to be. Yet the opportunity not to be rich is one of the greatest opportunities with which young Americans have been blessed.
↗The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (The American Scholar)theamericanscholar.org 2nd of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsBut being an intellectual is not the same as being smart. Being an intellectual means more than doing your homework.
↗The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (The American Scholar)theamericanscholar.org 3rd of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsThe system forgot to teach them, along the way to the prestige admissions and the lucrative jobs, that the most important achievements can’t be measured by a letter or a number or a name. It forgot that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers.
↗The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (The American Scholar)theamericanscholar.org 4th of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsThe ability to engage in introspection, I put it to my students that day, is the essential precondition for living an intellectual life, and the essential precondition for introspection is solitude.
↗The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (The American Scholar)theamericanscholar.org 5th of 5 in this piece
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.