a hero

A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.


Christopher Reeve
Still Me. Ballantine Books, 1999

to leave unsaid

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

Benjamin Franklin

The Art of Virtue: Ben Franklin's Formula for Successful Living. Skyhorse Publishing. 2012. 

a wide spectrum of intelligences

Gardner’s influential 1983 book Frames of Mind was a manifesto refuting the IQ view; it proposed that there was not just one, monolithic kind of intelligence that was crucial for life success, but rather a wide spectrum of intelligences, with seven key varieties. His list includes the two standard academic kinds, verbal and mathematical-logical alacrity, but it goes on to include the spatial capacity seen in, say, an outstanding artist or architect; the kinesthetic genius displayed in the physical fluidity and grace of a Martha Graham or Magic Johnson; and the musical gifts of a Mozart of YoYo Ma. Rounding out the list are two faces of what Gardner calls “the personal intelligences”; interpersonal skills, like those of a great therapist such as Carl Rogers or a world-class leader such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and the “intrapsychic” capacity that could emerge, on the one hand, in the brilliant insights of Sigmund Freud, or, with less fanfare, in the inner contentment that arises from attuning one’s life to be in keeping with one’s true feelings.

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. Random House LLC, 2006. 358 pages, p.38

broaden our notion of the spectrum of talents

The guiding visionary behind Project Spectrum is Howard Gardner, a psychologist at the Harvard School of Education. “The time has come,” Gardner told me, “to broaden our notion of the spectrum of talents. The single most important contribution education can make to a child’s development will be satisfied and competent. We’ve completely lost sight of that. Instead we subject everyone to an education where, if you succeed, you will be best suited to be a college professor. And we evaluate everyone along the way according to whether they meet that narrow standard of success. We should spend less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competencies and gifts, and cultivate those. There are hundreds and hundreds of ways to succeed, and many, many different abilities that will help you get there.

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. Random House LLC, 2006. 358 pages, p.37

two brains, two minds

In a sense we have two brains, two minds – and two different kinds of intelligence: rational and emotional. How we do in life is determined by intelligence: rational and emotional. How we do in life is determined by both – it is not just IQ, but emotional intelligence that matters. Indeed, intellect cannot work at its best without emotional intelligence. Ordinarily, the complementarity of limbic system and neocortex, amygdala and prefrontal lobes, means each is a full partner in mental life. When these partners interact well, emotional intelligence rises – as does intellectual ability. 

This turns the old understanding of the tension between reason and feeling on its head: it is not that we want to do away with emotion and put reason in its place, as Erasmus had it, but instead find the intelligent balance of the two. The old paradigm held an ideal of reason freed of the pull of emotion. The new paradigm urges us to harmonize head and heart. To do that well in our lives means we must first understand more exactly what it means to use emotion intelligently.

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. Random House LLC, 2006. 358 pages p.28, 29