Ruth Simmons famous quotes

03-23-2025

I came to understand the value of education, not just to enable me to make a good living, but to enable me to make a worthwhile life.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Worthwhile #Value Of Education #Values
There's nothing worse than a leader who lacks ambition.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Ambition #Leader
Fear of failure is the fuel of achievement. If you weren't afraid to fail, you probably wouldn't be highly motivated to work at the level that most of us have to work at to do well.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Failure #Achievement #Fuel
I often say that shareholders should feel very responsible for how responsive corporations are to the public trust.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Trust #Corporations #Responsible
the most important thing one can do for children is not accept the limitations they are so willing to impose on themselves.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Children #Important #Accepting
There is strong mentoring of women in the academy. Corporations appear more willing to resist affirmative action to advance women, and boards and shareholders are more tolerant of this approach.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Strong #Corporations #Boards
Probably the first time I was a boss was when I was associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Southern California. I was in my early 30s.
-- Ruth Simmons

#School #California #Boss
I'm the youngest of 12 children. And although I was the youngest, I tried to organize things in my family. When there were disputes, I tried to mediate.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Children #My Family #Disputes
If I can give a very substantial injection of humanistic thinking into corporations, boy, that would change things a lot.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Boys #Thinking #Giving
It's very important in a leadership role not to place your ego at the foreground and not to judge everything in relationship to how your ego is fed.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Judging #Ego #Important
The humanities don't belong to some elitist group... knowledge as a whole should be embraced.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Humanity #Groups #Should
It really pains me greatly to hear from graduate students that graduate education is a lower priority here.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Pain #Priorities #Students
I was intent on doing something productive and on being everything my parents taught me to be. Their values were clear: do good work; don't ever get too big for your breeches; always be an authentic person; don't worry too much about being famous and rich because that doesn't amount to too much.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Worry #Parent #Too Much
If you are the kind of person who listens to conservative advice, you may do okay in life, but you probably won't ever be a fantastic leader. You have to take risks, and you also have to go against conventional wisdom, because conventional wisdom doesn't make for startling advances in society.
-- Ruth Simmons

#Leader #Advice #Risk

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