Potential

Famous quotes containing the word potential:

    A child is born with the potential ability to learn Chinese or Swahili, play a kazoo, climb a tree, make a strudel or a birdhouse, take pleasure in finding the coordinates of a star. Genetic inheritance determines a child’s abilities and weaknesses. But those who raise a child call forth from that matrix the traits and talents they consider important.
    Emilie Buchwald (20th century)

    Democracy is timelessly human, and timelessness always implies a certain amount of potential youthfulness.
    Thomas Mann (1875–1955)

    Raising a daughter is an extremely political act in this culture. Mothers have been placed in a no-win situation with their daughters: if they teach their daughters simply how to get along in a world that has been shaped by men and male desires, then they betray their daughters’ potential But, if they do not, they leave their daughters adrift in a hostile world without survival strategies.
    Elizabeth Debold (20th century)