Fifty Years with Father Hesburgh Quotes

“The academic community represents about 30% of America and it is important that it has some input into the councils of state. I believe that in general this community is intelligent, generous, idealistic, and dedicated to the best interest of the country. It is also obstreperous, noisy, occasionally violent, almost always critical, but, again, committed to the best that America can be and this commitment far outweighs the negative elements that make the academic community troublesome. I have seen a moral rebirth on this campus during the past ten days of May that is unparalleled in my lifetime, most of which has been spent at universities, mainly this one. This is a resource that America needs and should”
― Robert Schmuhl, Fifty Years with Father Hesburgh: On and Off the Record

“Most fundamentally, may we state our deep convictions that our national priorities today are not military, but human. Our nation is unnecessarily and bitterly divided on issues at home and abroad. If the war abroad can be quickly and effectively defused, then we can be united at home in our dedication to justice, to equality of opportunity, and to renewing the quality of American life—a task that will require our best personal efforts and even more of our financial resources than those squandered by us in recent years on a largely frustrating and fruitless venture.” Interestingly, the Declaration is signed “T. M. Hesburgh, C.S.C.” No first name, no formal title—just the”
― Robert Schmuhl, Fifty Years with Father Hesburgh: On and Off the Record

“I think I’d be an absolute fool if I didn’t think about stepping down,’ he said. ‘You’re constantly in the middle.”
― Robert Schmuhl, Fifty Years with Father Hesburgh: On and Off the Record

“What do you do? I have no inflammatory rhetoric to offer you. I must tell you honestly that violence here at home is the worst possible reaction to the violence you abhor in Southeast Asia. I must tell you that if the world is to be better than it presently is, you must prepare yourselves, intellectually, morally, and spiritually, to help make it better. Striking classes as some universities are doing, in the sense of cutting off your education, is the worst thing you could do at this time, since your education and your growth in competence are what the world needs most, if the leadership of the future is going to be better than the leadership of the past and present. Good leaders were never born of self-indulgence, or self-pity either.”
― Robert Schmuhl, Fifty Years with Father Hesburgh: On and Off the Record

“Our friends at the old location said they were going to put on a revolution and all start smoking cigars because they didn’t want us to leave. Some of them came over to have their pictures taken with us. But there is always someone who objects loudly, thinking that cigar smokers are just a notch above mass murderers.”
― Robert Schmuhl, Fifty Years with Father Hesburgh: On and Off the Record