Quotes by A. Bartlett Giamatti

A liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
All I ever wanted to be president of was the American League.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
It is not enough to offer a smorgasbord of courses. We must insure that students are not just eating at one end of the table.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
On a good day, I view the job of president as directing an orchestra. On the dark days, it is more like that of a clutch-engaging the engine to effect forward motion, while taking greater friction.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
On matters of race, on matters of decency, baseball should lead the way.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
Teachers believe they have a gift for giving; it drives them with the same irrepressible drive that drives others to create a work of art or a market or a building.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
Teaching is an instinctual art, mindful of potential, craving of realizations, a pausing, seamless process.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is a sad end if a sorry episode. One of the game's greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts. There is absolutely no deal for reinstatement.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
There are a lot of people who know me who can't understand for the life of them why I would got to work on something as unserious as baseball. If they only knew.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
There are many who lust for the simple answers of doctrine or decree. They are on the left and right. They are not confined to a single part of the society. They are terrorists of the mind.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
There's nothing bad that accrues from baseball.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
Far better to think historically, to remember the lessons of the past. Thus, far better to conceive of power as consisting in part of the knowledge of when not to use all the power you have. Far better to be one who knows that if you reserve the power not to use all your power, you will lead others far more successfully and well.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti
Major sports are major parts of society. It's not anomalous to have people who love sports come from other parts of that society.
– A. Bartlett Giamatti