harvard quotes education

150+ Harvard Quotes

This is a compilation of Harvard Quotes that resonates with the spirit of one of the world’s most prestigious educational institutions. Harvard University is where a culture of intellectual rigor, and a relentless pursuit of ‘Veritas’ – truth.

These quotes, sourced from various corners of Harvard’s illustrious corridors, from the vibrant Harvard Yard to the hallowed halls of Widener Library, aim to encapsulate the essence of the Harvard experience.

Whether you’re a current student navigating the complexities of life at this Ivy League powerhouse, an alumnus reflecting on the transformative journey, or an aspirant dreaming of walking through the Johnston Gate, these quotes will speak to you. They echo the ambition, resilience, and spirit of inquiry that Harvard instills in its community. Join us as we explore the wisdom, wit, and wonder that Harvard has inspired through the years, capturing the quintessential Harvard experience in words.

Harvard Quotes Short

Harvard University, a place of ambition and intellect, inspires many. Here are 12 short quotes that capture its essence, perfect for social media sharing:

• Harvard: Where dreams are bigger, and the sky’s the limit.
• In Veritas we trust; in Harvard, we grow.
• Crimson pride, globally united.
• From Harvard Yard to the stars.
• Leading change, one Harvard mind at a time.
• Harvard’s legacy: Building leaders, shaping futures.
• Every challenge met with Crimson spirit.
• Harvard: Where innovation meets tradition.
• One Harvard degree, infinite possibilities.
• Harvard’s halls, echoing with tomorrow’s ideas.
• Bound by intellect, driven by passion.
• Harvard’s motto: Excellence in every endeavor.

Funny Harvard Quotes

Harvard University, a place of ambition and intellect, inspires many. Here are some short quotes that capture its essence, perfect for instagram. These quotes reflect the spirit of Harvard, commitment to excellence, leadership, and a global perspective.

Harvard Quotes about Life

Harvard, more than a university, is a life journey. These quotes encapsulate the transformative experiences and life lessons that Harvard imparts to its students .

• Harvard: Turning ‘I can’t’ into ‘I did.’
• Life’s syllabus: Mastered at Harvard .
• Crimson dreams, reality’s beams.
• Beyond the Yard, life’s best lessons .
• In Veritas, life’s clarity.
• Harvard hustle: Life’s real tutor.
• From Harvard’s halls, life calls.
• Life lessons , in Harvard’s sessions.
• Harvard’s motto: Live, learn, lead.
• Harvard: Where life’s chapters are written.
• Every Harvard dawn, new life’s spawn.
• Harvard taught me life’s A-Z.
• In life’s library, Harvard’s my bibliography.
• Harvard: Crafting life stories, one page at a time.
• Life’s a class, Harvard’s the pass.

Harvard University Motivation Quotes

Harvard University, a beacon of inspiration and excellence, motivates many. Here are 15 motivational quotes reflecting the spirit and aspirations of Harvard.

• Harvard’s lesson: Aim high, soar higher.
• Dream in Crimson; achieve in reality.
• In the pursuit of Veritas, find your truth.
• Harvard taught me: Every challenge is a new chapter.
• Crimson courage: Facing fears, forging futures.
• Harvard’s wisdom: Grow through what you go through.
• At Harvard, ‘impossible’ is just an opinion.
• Harvard’s call: Transform dreams into deeds.
• From Harvard Yard, to stars beyond. Aim limitless.
• Harvard spirit: Resilience in adversity, humility in triumph.
• Harvard’s mantra: Learn, lead, inspire, repeat.
• Chase excellence, success follows. Harvard’s way.
• Harvard’s legacy: Igniting minds, kindling change.
• In Harvard we trust, in ourselves we believe.
• Harvard’s pledge: Be the change the world awaits.

Harvard Quotes from Legally Blonde Movie

Legally Blonde, with its Harvard setting, offers memorable quotes full of wit and wisdom. These playful quotes capture the spirit of Legally Blonde and its unique take on life at Harvard Law School.

• Who said law and pink can’t mix? Harvard did, I didn’t.
• At Harvard Law, bending the rules with a touch of pink.
• Harvard’s lesson: Underestimate the blonde, overestimate your loss.
• In a world of black and white , be Harvard pink.
• Harvard Law: Where being fashionably smart is always in style .
• Elle Woods: Turning Harvard’s halls into runways.
• Harvard taught me: Legalese in heels is still legalese.
• Blonde ambition meets Harvard tradition.
• Breaking stereotypes, one Harvard case at a time.
• Harvard’s new rule: Pink is the new black.
• Elle Woods style: Making Harvard chic and clever.
• At Harvard, even our law books wear pink.
• Harvard’s motto: Brains, beauty, and a bit of blonde.
• Turning Harvard’s Crimson tide to pink waves.
• Who needs Harvard’s black robes when you have pink confidence?

Quotes from Harvard Graduates

Harvard University has been a nurturing ground for many influential minds. These quotes reflect the diverse and profound impact Harvard University has had on its alumni, shaping leaders, thinkers, and change makers.

• At Harvard, I learned to change the world, one idea at a time.
• Harvard’s halls taught me: Dream big, work hard, achieve more.
• From Harvard Yard to global impact: One step at a time.
• Harvard’s lesson: Think critically, act compassionately.
• In Veritas’ light, I found my path to change.
• Harvard’s gift: A mind trained for excellence, a heart for change.
• Beneath these Crimson robes, a world-changer was born.
• From Harvard’s classrooms to the world’s stages: Every word counts.
• Harvard taught me: Leadership is about lifting others.
• In Harvard’s library, I found books and my purpose.
• Harvard’s creed: Challenge norms, create new paths.
• Where Harvard’s theories meet real-world practice, I found my calling.
• Through Harvard’s gates, entered a student, emerged a visionary.
• Harvard’s challenge: Be the best, but remember to serve.
• Harvard’s legacy in me: Infinite curiosity, relentless pursuit.

Harvard Motto

Harvard’s motto, Veritas, symbolizes a quest for truth that inspires many. These quotes capture the essence of Harvard’s guiding principle and the relentless pursuit of truth in education and beyond.

• In Veritas, we trust and thrive.
• Harvard’s Veritas: Guiding light in life’s journey.
• Seek truth, find wisdom – Harvard’s way.
• Veritas: Not just a motto, but a life mission.
• Harvard’s call: Pursue Veritas, embrace greatness.
• In the pursuit of Veritas, Harvard shapes futures.
• Veritas: More than words, a Harvard promise.
• At Harvard, Veritas is the key to unlocking potential.
• Harvard’s essence: Live and breathe Veritas.
• Truth in theory, Veritas in practice – Harvard’s creed.
• Harvard teaches: Veritas conquers all.
• Veritas: Harvard’s foundation, our inspiration.
• Harvard’s legacy: Carrying Veritas into the world.
• Embrace Veritas, and Harvard’s spirit follows.
• With Veritas, Harvard challenges minds, changes lives.

Short Harvard Quotes about Life

Harvard’s influence extends beyond academia, shaping perspectives on life. These quotes succinctly capture the essence of how Harvard shapes its students’ approach to life , blending intellectual rigor with life-long lessons.

• Harvard’s lesson: Dream, then do.
• In life and learning, Harvard leads.
• Harvard’s truth: Life’s a daring adventure.
• From Harvard Yard, life’s vast horizons.
• Life’s syllabus, Harvard’s wisdom.
• Harvard spirit: Challenge, conquer, celebrate.
• Life’s journey, Harvard’s guidance.
• Harvard’s mantra: Think, thrive, transcend.
• In life’s library, Harvard’s chapter shines.
• Harvard’s legacy: Live with purpose.
• Life’s canvas, painted with Harvard hues.
• Harvard’s echo: In Veritas, vitality.
• Life lessons, Harvard’s hallmark.
• Harvard’s creed: Forge your path.
• Life’s quest, Harvard’s compass.

Inspirational Harvard Quotes about Life

Harvard University, with its rich legacy and intellectual rigor, offers profound insights into life. Here are 15 inspirational quotes about life, infused with Harvard’s spirit and wisdom:

• Harvard’s way: In every challenge, find an opportunity to grow.
• Life’s a Harvard exam: tough but rewarding.
• Harvard teaches: In the pursuit of truth, find your path.
• From Harvard Yard, life’s endless possibilities unfold.
• At Harvard, every setback is a setup for a comeback.
• Embrace life with Harvard’s tenacity and grace.
• Harvard’s lesson: Your potential is limitless.
• In Harvard’s light, find the courage to be your best.
• Life, like Harvard, rewards those who dare greatly.
• Harvard’s creed: In adversity, discover strength.
• Forge your life with Harvard’s blend of wisdom and courage.
• From Harvard’s halls, emerge life’s trailblazers.
• Harvard’s gift: Viewing life through a lens of endless possibilities.
• Live life with the curiosity and boldness of a Harvard scholar.
• Harvard’s mantra: Transform challenges into life’s milestones.

Harvard Quotes about Life Lessons

At Harvard, every experience is a lesson in life . These quotes reflect the depth of learning and personal growth that Harvard instills, offering insights into the broader lessons of life.

• Life’s greatest syllabus taught in Harvard’s halls.
• Harvard’s wisdom: In every failure, a hidden lesson.
• From Harvard’s challenges, life’s resilience is born.
• Harvard teaches: In diversity, life’s richest lessons.
• Life, like Harvard, demands courage and hard work.
• Harvard’s creed: Transform obstacles into stepping stones.
• In Harvard’s pursuit of Veritas, life’s truths unfold.
• Harvard’s journey: Where life’s purpose is discovered.
• Embrace life with Harvard’s spirit of relentless inquiry.
• Harvard’s lesson: Forge your path with wisdom.
• In life’s complexities, seek Harvard’s clarity.
• Harvard’s gift: Equip for life, prepare for change.

Funny Harvard Quotes about Life

Harvard isn’t just about serious academia; it’s also a place of humor and fun. These quotes humorously reflect the unique and often challenging experiences of life at Harvard.

• Harvard: Where ‘sleep optional’ is an unofficial course.
• Life’s a test, and Harvard forgot to give me the study guide.
• At Harvard, my favorite sport is jumping to conclusions.
• Harvard’s unofficial motto: ‘I came, I saw, I caffeinated.
• In Harvard we trust, in caffeine we believe.
• Lost in Widener Library, send a search party and pizza.
• Harvard’s like a treadmill – always moving, rarely forward.
• Survived another day at Harvard without turning into a book.
• Harvard: Where your best isn’t good enough, but it’s still worth trying.
• Remember, Harvard’s not hard – said no one ever.
• At Harvard, even the squirrels are stressed about finals.
• Harvard: Making me feel less smart, one lecture at a time.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

Get Your Free Field Trip Reflection Sheet 🦁!

50 of the Best Quotes About Education

Learn as if you were to live forever.

Being an educator is not always the easiest job, but knowing you have made an impact on students’ lives can be so rewarding. Through all of the good times and bad, you continue to persevere and provide education to students of all backgrounds and abilities. We collected 50 of the best quotes about education to celebrate the best parts of teaching, learning, and the impact they have on the world.

Our Favorite Quotes About Education

“education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.” — malcolm x.

“Education is one thing no one can take away from you.” — Elin Nordegren

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” — Malcolm Forbes

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” — Sydney J. Harris

“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” — Abigail Adams

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. … Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“A person who won’t read has no advantage over a person who can’t read.” — Mark Twain

“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” — Unknown

“Education is the key to unlock a golden door of freedom.” — George Washington Carver

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” — Herbert Spencer

“The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.” — John F. Kennedy

“The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.” — George Santayana

“The roots of education … are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” — Aristotle

“Education must not simply teach work, it must teach Life.” — W.E.B Du Bois

“Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.” — Horace Mann

“I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.” — Steve Irwin

“Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.” — Sidney Hook

“All real education is the architecture of the soul.” — William Bennett

“Education is the key which will unlock the door of opportunity for you.” — Gordon B. Hinckley

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” — Maya Angelou

“Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.” — Bill Nye

“The highest result of education is tolerance.” — Helen Keller

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” — Aristotle

“To teach is to learn twice.” — Joseph Joubert

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” — Plutarch

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” — Confucius

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” — Mark Van Doren

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” — Margaret Mead

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” — Henry Ford

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” — Henry Brooks Adams

“They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel.” — Carl W. Buehner

“A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard.” — Eliphas Levi

“One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai

“Teachers are the one and only people who save nations.” — Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” — Isaac Asimov

“Real education must ultimately be limited to one who INSISTS on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.” — Ezra Pound

“Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.” — Marian Wright Edelman

“It is only the ignorant who despise education.” — Publilius Syrus

“A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.” — Gwendolyn Brooks

“I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.” — William Morris

“Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer; into a selflessness which links us with all humanity.” — Nancy Astor

“It makes little difference how many university courses or degrees a person may own. If he cannot use words to move an idea from one point to another, his education is incomplete.” — Norman Cousins

“The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.” — John Ruskin

“Education is our only political safety. Outside of this ark all is deluge.” — Horace Mann

“Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.” — Daniel J. Boorstin

“Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends only with life. A child is given to the universe to be educated.” — Frederick William Robertson

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. If we retrench the wages of the schoolmaster, we must raise those of the recruiting sergeant.” — Edward Everett

Like these quotes about education? Check out these team-building quotes for classrooms and schools .

Come share your favorite motivational quotes about education in the we are teachers helpline group on facebook .

You Might Also Like

55 Inspirational Teacher Quotes To Brighten Your Day

Because teachers make the world a better place. Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256

Welcome back

Create an account to save your favorite quotes.

Create your account

Forgot password, resend verification email, harvard sayings and quotes.

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old harvard quotes, harvard sayings, and harvard proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Everyone praises Harvard 'for the students.' But what makes Harvard's students so great is that they are, in many ways, a cross-section of the larger world. They are normal people who happen to be excellent, and this sets them apart. People who go to Yale go because they want to attend Yale. People who go to Harvard go because they can. Alexandra Petri

I went into Harvard one way and came out a different person... It's the air at Harvard; it's like a Renaissance court. Erich Segal

There's a rule they don't teach you at the Harvard Business School. It is, if anything is worth doing, it's worth doing to excess. Edwin H. Land

I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University. William F. Buckley, Jr.

I can always tell if someone's from Harvard because they trot out their vitae. I would die at Harvard. Junot Diaz

If Moses had gone to Harvard Law School and spent three years working on the Hill, he would have written the Ten Commandments with three exceptions and a saving clause. Charles Morgan

What's a good metaphor for a Harvard student? A talking, gold-plated pile of manure, wearing a fleece. David Fahrenthold

Harvard was an extraordinary window on the world. Pierre Trudeau

A Harvard education consists of what you learn at Harvard while you are not studying. James Bryant Conant

Harvard University, according to the directory of the American Society of Colleges and Universities, is a 'type of weevil.' Dave Barry

I'd say Harvard graduates leave here with a sense of the possible and the limit - and a sense that there are no limits to what humans can do and that you can always be pushing, whatever limit you think might be there. Drew Gilpin Faust

At Harvard, you don't major. You concentrate. Gram Parsons

Would physics at Geneva be as good as physics at Harvard? I think not. Rome? I think not. In Britain, I don't think there is one place, neither Cambridge nor Oxford, which can compare with Harvard. Sheldon Lee Glashow

Four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but had been given the liberating notion that now I could teach myself. John Updike

I’m not the woman president of Harvard, I’m the president of Harvard. Drew Gilpin Faust

You are sadly mistaken if you view a Harvard education as primarily a gold-edged certificate to success. John U. Munro

Harvard makes mistakes too, you know. Kissinger taught there. Woody Allen

Here [at Harvard], if we are doing our job, you will be led to an intellectual abyss. Raphael Demos

I want to make as much of a contribution as I can, to Harvard, to higher education and hopefully, to education around the world. Jim Breyer

I know of no title that I deem more honorable than that of Professor of the Harvard Law School. Felix Frankfurter

At Harvard, people like to impart the idea that you are a mover and shaker. Alexandra Petri

In truth, I did enjoy the benefits of a Harvard connection. Ruth Bader Ginsburg

That said, there are a few clear factors that determine the potential of a university to reach the highest levels of excellence. In the case of Harvard University, it was true that by the time of its tercentenary (300th anniversary of its founding) in 1936, Harvard had already achieved a reputation as a world-class institution. Harvard did not have the stature that it does today. Henry Rosovsky

I too turned to Webster's Dictionary and it defined Harvard University as a season for gathering crops. Andy Samberg

I'm an ambitious person, and Harvard makes me feel successful, just having gotten in here. That's the ugly side of why I'm proud of being at Harvard Law School. Another reason is because there's a spirit of serious intellectual endeavor here. Scott Turow

The Harvard Law states: Under controlled conditions of light, temperature, humidity, and nutrition, the organism will do as it damn well pleases. Larry Wall

It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree. John F. Kennedy

Harvard is the home of American ideas. P. J. O'Rourke

I picked Harvard because it was in a big city, and a lot of girls' schools were nearby. And I liked President Kennedy, who went to Harvard. Jack Canfield

If you're last in your class at Harvard, it doesn't feel like you're a good student, even though you really are. It's not smart for everyone to want to go to a great school. Malcolm Gladwell

I teach at Harvard that the world and the heavens, and the stars are all real, but not so damned real, you see. Josiah Royce

A rich poet from Harvard has no sense in his mind, except the aesthetic. Beatrice Wood

We’ve all started lifelong friendships here, and some of us even families. That’s why I’m so grateful to this place. Thanks, Harvard. Mark Zuckerberg

Not even a Harvard School of Business can make greed into a science. W.E.B. Du Bois

Part of being a big winner is the ability to be a big loser. There is no paradox involved. It is a distinctly Harvard thing to be able to turn any defeat into victory. Erich Segal

Every Harvard class should have one Democrat to rescue it from oblivion Will Rogers

Harvard produces leaders. People with Harvard degrees go on to become administrators in high-level positions in state educational departments and in public schools around the country. Christina Hoff Sommers

Harvard was a kind of luxurious afternoon. Lincoln Kirstein

The truth of the matter is, you die, all you do is die, and yet you live, yes you live, and that's no Harvard lie. Jack Kerouac

The only thing I ever learned was that some people are lucky and other people aren't and not even a graduate of the Harvard Business School can say why. Kurt Vonnegut

I don't believe I'll ever get credit for anything I do in foreign affairs, no matter how successful it is, because I didn't go to Harvard. Lyndon B. Johnson

We're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive. It's pretty dense kids who haven't figured that out by the time they're ten.... Most kids can't afford to go to Harvard and be misinformed. Kurt Vonnegut

If I am not elected, I imagine that I will ask Harvard to let me back. Michael Ignatieff

Harvard has now de facto become a Chinese outpost. Thorsten J. Pattberg

A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard. Herman Melville

• Presentations
• Video Clips

14 Quotes from Einstein on Education (with Sources)

On Schooling:   ‘’It is nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. ’’  [quoted in The New York Times , March 13 1949, p. 34].

On Imagination: ‘ ’Knowledge is limited.  Imagination encircles the world. ’’ [quoted in “What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck” Saturday Evening Post , October 26th, 1929, p. 11].

On Love of Learning : ’I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious .’’ [quoted in Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe , p. 548].

On Creativity: ‘’It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.’ ‘ [quoted in Alice Calaprice, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein , p. 100].

On Play : “The desire to arrive finally at logically connected concepts is the emotional basis of a vague play with basic ideas. . . . . this combinatory or associative play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.”   [quoted in Jacques Hadamard, An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field , Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1945, p. 142].

On Curiosity : “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity.’’  [quoted in, ‘’Death of a Genius–Old Man’s Advice to Youth: ‘Never Lose a Holy Curiosity,’’ Life Magazine 38, no. 18, (May 2, 1955): p. 64].

On Wonder: ”The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle.”  [quoted in Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe , p. 387].

On Individuality:   ”The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgment should always be placed foremost, not the acquisition of special knowledge. . .”   [quoted in Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions , Broadway Books, p. 64].

On Neurodiversity : His son, Albert Einstein Jr. wrote: ” [Einstein] was . . . considered backward by his teachers. He told me that his teachers reported to his father that he was mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams .” [quoted in Victor Goertzel and Mildred G. Goertzel, Cradles of Eminence, p. 248.

On Compassion:   ‘’ Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty .’’  [quoted in Walter Sullivan, ‘’The Einstein Papers: A Man of Many Parts,’’ The New York Times , March 29, 1972, p. 20].

On Care for Nature :  ” In every true searcher of Nature there is a kind of religious reverence .”  [quoted in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein , p. 32].

On Tolerance :  ‘’ Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population. ’’ [quoted in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein , p. 297].

On Beauty:   ‘’ To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly; this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man .”  [quoted in Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe , p. 387].

On Education:   ‘’ The wit was not wrong who defined education in this way: ‘Education is that which remains, if one has forgotten everything he learned in school .’’ [quoted in Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions , p. 63].

This page was brought to you by Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. and www.institute4learning.com .

Follow me on Twitter:   @Dr_Armstrong

Subscribe to my blog feed

Thomas Armstrong

Related posts.

• Three Seminars Coming up in April
• Leonardo da Vinci’s IEP Meeting (Video)
• Does ADHD Even Exist?

Leave a Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Books by Dr. Armstrong

Follow me on:.

Recent Articles

• ADHD Isn’t a Disorder, It’s a Neurodiversity
• 6 Environmental Factors Contributing to ADHD Symptoms

Article Archives

Article categories.

• Adolescence
• Adult Development
• Anxiety Disorders
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Audio Books
• Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Awakening Genius
• Book Reviews
• Cross Cultural Issues
• Death and Dying
• Developmental Psychology
• Disappearance of Childhood
• Early Childhood
• Ecology of Learning
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Expressive Arts
• Film Reviews
• Gender Differences
• Genetic Engineering
• Guest Blogs
• Homeschooling
• Human Development
• Human Potential
• Intellectual Disabilities
• Late Adulthood
• Late Childhood
• Learning Disabilties
• Learning Strategies
• Love of Learning
• Media Events
• Middle Childhood
• Midlife Development
• Mindfulness
• Miseducation of America
• Mood Disorders
• Multiple Intelligences
• Neurodiversity
• Neuroscience
• Other Species
• Prebirth and Birth
• Psychotherapy
• Relationships
• Schizophrenia
• School Reforms
• Social Issues
• Speaking Events
• Special Education
• Spirituality
• Stages of Life
• Standardized Testing
• The Power of the Adolescent Brain Video Series
• Trump Watch
• Uncategorized
• Video Series on My Novel Childless
• Video Series on Neurodiversity and Special Education
• Video Series on The Myth of the ADHD Child
• Workplace Issues
• Young Adulthood

The Ph.D. in Education is an interdisciplinary doctoral program that combines advances in the social sciences, sciences, arts, and humanities with deep expertise in educational research, policy, and practice to train students for careers as academics, researchers, policymakers, and leaders who will improve educational outcomes in the United States and around the world. Ph.D. candidates will collaborate with faculty from across Harvard graduate and professional schools and conduct groundbreaking research — forging new fields of inquiry that will transform education practice and policy.  Candidates for the Ph.D. in Education choose from among three concentrations: Culture, Institutions, and Society; Education Policy and Program Evaluation; or Human Development, Learning and Teaching.

All Ph.D.s are granted through the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / Harvard Referencing / Harvard Referencing Style Examples / Referencing direct quotes in Harvard style

Referencing direct quotes in Harvard style

If you include a direct quote in your paper, you’ll need to know how to create Harvard in-text citations . The Harvard style of referencing follows an author-date format for in-text citations; this means that the surname of the author and the date of publication are used to cite a quotation or idea borrowed from another author. If you include a direct quote in your paper and that source has page numbers, you’ll also need to know how to format page numbers in Harvard style .

Follow these rules when directly quoting from a source in Harvard style:

Short direct quotations

A short direct quote is one to two lines long. When you are using a short direct quotation from a source, it should be enclosed in quotation marks. The following format is used:

“Quotation” (Surname of the author, year of publication of the source, page number if applicable).

Example :  

“He put up his book of notes in a very deliberate manner” (Gaskell, 1855, p. 290).  

Note that if you mention the name of the author in the sentence containing the direct quotation, you do not have to put the author’s name in the parenthetical in-text citation.

Gaskell (1855, p. 292) writes, “She had sunk under her burden.”

While referencing this quotation in the reference list, you will follow the following format:

Surname of the author, initial(s). (Year of publication) Title of the source . Place of publication: Publisher.

Gaskell, E. (1855) North and south . London: Vintage Publishing.

Longer direct quotations

Quotations that run for more than two lines should be separated from the paragraph. A free line should be left above and below the quotation.

A colon is placed before the quotation. Unlike short quotations, longer quotations are not enclosed in quotation marks. The author’s name, date of publication, and page number are included.

The font size of the quotation should be at least 2 points smaller than the font size of the rest of the text.

The full citation in the reference list should be formatted the same way as for shorter direct quotations.

The narrator describes why Radley house was different from the otherwise amiable neighborhood of Maycomb county. As stated by Lee (1960, p. 9):

The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb. They did not go to church, Maycomb’s principal recreation, but worshiped at home; Mrs. Radley seldom if ever crossed the street for a mid-morning coffee break with her neighbors, and certainly never joined a missionary circle.

This clearly shows why the Radleys were different.

Published October 29, 2020.

Harvard Formatting Guide

Harvard Formatting

• et al Usage
• Direct Quotes
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Page Numbers
• Writing an Outline
• View Harvard Guide

Reference Examples

• View all Harvard Examples

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Harvard Referencing Examples

Writing Tools

Citation Generators

Other Citation Styles

Plagiarism Checker

Upload a paper to check for plagiarism against billions of sources and get advanced writing suggestions for clarity and style.

Get Started

• University News
• Faculty & Research
• Health & Medicine
• Science & Technology
• Social Sciences
• Humanities & Arts
• Students & Alumni
• Arts & Culture
• Sports & Athletics
• The Professions
• International
• New England Guide

The Magazine

• Current Issue
• Past Issues

Class Notes & Obituaries

• Browse Class Notes
• Browse Obituaries

Collections

• Commencement
• The Context

Harvard Squared

• Harvard in the Headlines

Support Harvard Magazine

• Why We Need Your Support
• How We Are Funded
• Ways to Support the Magazine
• Special Gifts
• Behind the Scenes

Classifieds

• Vacation Rentals & Travel
• Real Estate
• Products & Services
• Harvard Authors’ Bookshelf
• Education & Enrichment Resource
• Ad Prices & Information
• Place An Ad

Follow Harvard Magazine:

University News | 4.24.2024

Harvard Students form Pro-Palestine Encampment

Protesters set up camp in harvard yard..

Wednesday afternoon, pro-Palestine activists set up an encampment in Harvard Yard | PHOTOGRAPH BY NIKO YAITANES/ HARVARD MAGAZINE

During the last week , pro-Palestine protesters at dozens of American universities have established encampments on school grounds. On Sunday, Harvard restricted access to the Yard, checking Harvard IDs at the gate and specifically noting that “structures, including tents and tables, are not permitted in the Yard without prior permission.”

Nonetheless, during a Wednesday afternoon rally against the administration’s Monday decision to suspend the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, protesters rushed into a patch of grass and rapidly set up tents. Now, students seem primed to camp out in Harvard Yard.

A newly formed group, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, took responsibility for establishing the “liberated zone.” In an Instagram post, the group laid out three demands:

• “Disclose any and all investments—both institutional and financial—in Israel, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the occupation of Palestine.”
• “Divest from all such investments, and reinvest resources in Palestinian academic initiatives, communities, and culture.”
• “Drop all charges against students for their organizing and activism, and commit to ending the weaponization of the disciplinary policy.”

The Crimson reported that more than 500 people attended the initial protest, which began around noon. By 3 PM , the Yard had calmed. Around 70 students were sitting inside the encampment, whose borders are marked by a thin preexisting rope that Harvard Facilities uses to keep traffic off the spring grass. Protesters in reflective vests policed the edges, prepared to remove anyone whom the group deems not welcome in the encampment. (In November, Harvard investigated a physical confrontation between similar protest marshals and a counter-protester at Harvard Business School and indefinitely relieved a proctor of his duties for his involvement in the scuffle. )

In the encampment, protesters chatted among themselves, worked on their laptops, and ate snacks from three large tubs. During an organizational meeting of students in the encampment, conducted in hushed tones to avoid publication of details, leaders instructed students not to speak to administrators or press, but to show their Harvard ID if asked by an authority figure. (The group’s media liaison declined to speak with Harvard Magazine .) The protesters have divided themselves into groups based on their level of risk tolerance. Signs ring the encampment, including a map of Israel/Palestine with the words “from the river to the sea,” a phrase condemned by former president Claudine Gay in November .

It is not yet clear how the Harvard administration will respond. Monday morning, Yale administrators ordered a large encampment outside Beinecke Library to be cleared, and police arrested about 47 students. At Columbia, administrators threatened to remove an encampment outside Low Library, but have not yet done so.

Following Harvard’s tumultuous fall semester, administrators have been thinking and talking about free expression. In January, President Alan Garber and Harvard’s deans clarified University policies surrounding campus protest . After a tumultuous fall, this spring the University has sponsored events about civil discourse and is trying to foster respectful disagreement .

For now, the student protesters remain in Harvard Yard, tents damp from an afternoon shower.

You might also like

Jeff Lichtman Appointed Dean of Science

Neuroscientist to lead Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences division

New Kennedy School Dean Announced

Stanford political scientist Jeremy Weinstein set to lead

A New Chapter for Harvard Arts

The Office for the Arts turns 50, and its longtime director steps down.

Most popular

Claudine Gay in First Post-Presidency Appearance

At Morning Prayers, speaks of resilience and the unknown

The World’s Costliest Health Care

Administrative costs, greed, overutilization—can these drivers of U.S. medical costs be curbed?

The Homelessness Public Health Crisis

Homelessness has surged in the United States, with devastating effects on the public health system.

More to explore

John Harvard's Journal

How is Artificial Intelligence Being Taught at Harvard?

A new Harvard course on artificial intelligence teaches students how to use the tool responsibly.

The Evolution of Human Fathers

Exploring the evolutionary biology of human fathers as caretakers

Civil War American Writer and Abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier

Homes of the poet and abolitionist, whose verses were said to have inspired Abraham Lincoln. 

• Presidential Search
• Editor's Pick

Progressive Labor Party Organizes Solidarity March With Harvard Yard Encampment

Encampment Protesters Briefly Raise 3 Palestinian Flags Over Harvard Yard

Mayor Wu Cancels Harvard Event After Affinity Groups Withdraw Over Emerson Encampment Police Response

Harvard Yard To Remain Indefinitely Closed Amid Encampment

HUPD Chief Says Harvard Yard Encampment is Peaceful, Defends Students’ Right to Protest

Howard Gardner ’65 Named Harvard Graduate School of Education’s 2024 Convocation Speaker

Developmental psychologist Howard E. Gardner ’65 will give the keynote address at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s 2024 Convocation, HGSE Dean Bridget Terry Long announced on April 15.

Gardner, a longtime professor at HGSE, will address graduates during the May 22 convocation ceremony, one day before the University-wide Commencement in Harvard Yard.

While Gardner retired from teaching a few years ago, he remains actively involved in research at Harvard.

“I used to joke that I have the largest medical record of the university because I’ve been going to the health services for 60 some years,” Gardner said.

Gardner is renowned globally for decades of pioneering work in the field of cognitive psychology.

He is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, which theorizes that individuals have multiple forms of intelligence beyond intellectual capacity, including linguistic, interpersonal, spatial-visual, and others.

According to Gardner, the overarching theme of his convocation speech is that to make lasting change in the field of education, students and leaders must balance long-standing continuities and a rapidly changing landscape.

Gardner described HGSE students as generally “idealistic.”

“They want to try to improve education and, as the slogan for the school says, ‘Learn to save the world,’” he added. “We have to have two eyes, one eye focused on the continuities, the human needs which have always been present as long as we’ve had young people who we want to help grow up — but also the many, many changes, intellectual, political, technological and so on.”

As one of the founding members of Project Zero, a significant HGSE research center dedicated to enhancing learning in the arts and other disciplines, Gardner served as co-director for 28 years and now acts as the head of the steering committee.

Long said in a press release announcing Gardner as the keynote speaker that he “has been an insightful voice in the field of education and a proud member of the HGSE community.”

“His scholarly contributions are immense — from the theory of multiple intelligences to the Good Project and his long service as co-director of Project Zero,” Long added. “But it is his unending curiosity and generosity that stand out for me, and I cannot think of a better person to instill a message of hope, good work, and civic participation to our next generation of educators and leaders.”

In 1996, Gardner co-founded “The Good Project” alongside psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon ’67, which aims to design tools for confronting everyday ethical decisions, with an emphasis on effective collaboration, digital citizenship, and civic participation.

Gardner explained that he and his colleagues define good citizenship as “having 3 E’s.”

“It has to be excellent, it has to be engaging, and it has to be carried out in an ethical way,” he said.

According to Gardner, given that today’s researchers and leaders have access to unprecedented levels of knowledge, as well as increasingly powerful computational instruments, it is necessary to rethink education “from the cradle to the grave.”

“The Ed School is uniquely poised to consider education from the very first life until the time when people can no longer function anymore,” Gardner said.

“Any good education school should try to do it,” he added. “But as a Harvard man for my life, I’d like us to take the lead in that.”

—Staff writer Katie B. Tian can be reached at [email protected] .

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Doctor of Philosophy in Education

Additional Information

• Download the Doctoral Viewbook
• Admissions & Aid

The Harvard Ph.D. in Education trains cutting-edge researchers who work across disciplines to generate knowledge and translate discoveries into transformative policy and practice.

Offered jointly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Ph.D. in Education provides you with full access to the extraordinary resources of Harvard University and prepares you to assume meaningful roles as university faculty, researchers, senior-level education leaders, and policymakers.

As a Ph.D. candidate, you will collaborate with scholars across all Harvard graduate schools on original interdisciplinary research. In the process, you will help forge new fields of inquiry that will impact the way we teach and learn. The program’s required coursework will develop your knowledge of education and your expertise in a range of quantitative and qualitative methods needed to conduct high-quality research. Guided by the goal of making a transformative impact on education research, policy, and practice, you will focus on independent research in various domains, including human development, learning and teaching, policy analysis and evaluation, institutions and society, and instructional practice.   

Curriculum Information

The Ph.D. in Education requires five years of full-time study to complete. You will choose your individual coursework and design your original research in close consultation with your HGSE faculty adviser and dissertation committee. The requirements listed below include the three Ph.D. concentrations: Culture, Institutions, and Society; Education Policy and Program Evaluation; and Human Development, Learning and Teaching . 

We invite you to review an example course list, which is provided in two formats — one as the full list by course number and one by broad course category . These lists are subject to modification. 

Ph.D. Concentrations and Examples

Summary of Ph.D. Program

Doctoral Colloquia  In year one and two you are required to attend. The colloquia convenes weekly and features presentations of work-in-progress and completed work by Harvard faculty, faculty and researchers from outside Harvard, and Harvard doctoral students. Ph.D. students present once in the colloquia over the course of their career.

Research Apprenticeship The Research Apprenticeship is designed to provide ongoing training and mentoring to develop your research skills throughout the entire program.

Teaching Fellowships The Teaching Fellowship is an opportunity to enhance students' teaching skills, promote learning consolidation, and provide opportunities to collaborate with faculty on pedagogical development.

Comprehensive Exams  The Written Exam (year 2, spring) tests you on both general and concentration-specific knowledge. The Oral Exam (year 3, fall/winter) tests your command of your chosen field of study and your ability to design, develop, and implement an original research project.

Dissertation  Based on your original research, the dissertation process consists of three parts: the Dissertation Proposal, the writing, and an oral defense before the members of your dissertation committee.

Culture, Institutions, and Society (CIS) Concentration

In CIS, you will examine the broader cultural, institutional, organizational, and social contexts relevant to education across the lifespan. What is the value and purpose of education? How do cultural, institutional, and social factors shape educational processes and outcomes? How effective are social movements and community action in education reform? How do we measure stratification and institutional inequality? In CIS, your work will be informed by theories and methods from sociology, history, political science, organizational behavior and management, philosophy, and anthropology. You can examine contexts as diverse as classrooms, families, neighborhoods, schools, colleges and universities, religious institutions, nonprofits, government agencies, and more.

Education Policy and Program Evaluation (EPPE) Concentration

In EPPE, you will research the design, implementation, and evaluation of education policy affecting early childhood, K–12, and postsecondary education in the U.S. and internationally. You will evaluate and assess individual programs and policies related to critical issues like access to education, teacher effectiveness, school finance, testing and accountability systems, school choice, financial aid, college enrollment and persistence, and more. Your work will be informed by theories and methods from economics, political science, public policy, and sociology, history, philosophy, and statistics. This concentration shares some themes with CIS, but your work with EPPE will focus on public policy and large-scale reforms.

Human Development, Learning and Teaching (HDLT) Concentration

In HDLT, you will work to advance the role of scientific research in education policy, reform, and practice. New discoveries in the science of learning and development — the integration of biological, cognitive, and social processes; the relationships between technology and learning; or the factors that influence individual variations in learning — are transforming the practice of teaching and learning in both formal and informal settings. Whether studying behavioral, cognitive, or social-emotional development in children or the design of learning technologies to maximize understanding, you will gain a strong background in human development, the science of learning, and sociocultural factors that explain variation in learning and developmental pathways. Your research will be informed by theories and methods from psychology, cognitive science, sociology and linguistics, philosophy, the biological sciences and mathematics, and organizational behavior.

Program Faculty

The most remarkable thing about the Ph.D. in Education is open access to faculty from all Harvard graduate and professional schools, including the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Learn about the full Ph.D. Faculty.

Jarvis R. Givens

Jarvis Givens studies the history of American education, African American history, and the relationship between race and power in schools.

Paul L. Harris

Paul Harris is interested in the early development of cognition, emotion, and imagination in children.

Meira Levinson

Meira Levinson is a normative political philosopher who works at the intersection of civic education, youth empowerment, racial justice, and educational ethics. 

Luke W. Miratrix

Luke Miratrix is a statistician who explores how to best use modern statistical methods in applied social science contexts.

Eric Taylor

Eric Taylor studies the economics of education, with a particular interest in employer-employee interactions between schools and teachers — hiring and firing decisions, job design, training, and performance evaluation.

Paola Uccelli

Paola Ucelli studies socio-cultural and individual differences in the language development of multilingual and monolingual students.

View Ph.D. Faculty

Dissertations.

The following is a complete listing of successful Ph.D. in Education dissertations to-date. Dissertations from November 2014 onward are publicly available in the Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) , the online repository for Harvard scholarship.

• 2022 Graduate Dissertations (265 KB pdf)
• 2021 Graduate Dissertations (177 KB pdf)
• 2020 Graduate Dissertations (121 KB pdf)
• 2019 Graduate Dissertations (68.3 KB pdf)

Student Directory

An opt-in listing of current Ph.D. students with information about their interests, research, personal web pages, and contact information:

Doctor of Philosophy in Education Student Directory

Introduce Yourself

Tell us about yourself so that we can tailor our communication to best fit your interests and provide you with relevant information about our programs, events, and other opportunities to connect with us.

Program Highlights

Explore examples of the Doctor of Philosophy in Education experience and the impact its community is making on the field:

Reshaping Teacher Licensure: Lessons from the Pandemic

Olivia Chi, Ed.M.'17, Ph.D.'20, discusses the ongoing efforts to ensure the quality and stability of the teaching workforce

Lost in Translation

New comparative study from Ph.D. candidate Maya Alkateb-Chami finds strong correlation between low literacy outcomes for children and schools teaching in different language from home

Important Addresses

Harvard College

University Hall Cambridge, MA 02138

Harvard College Admissions Office and Griffin Financial Aid Office

86 Brattle Street Cambridge, MA 02138

Social Links

If you are located in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway (the “European Economic Area”), please click here for additional information about ways that certain Harvard University Schools, Centers, units and controlled entities, including this one, may collect, use, and share information about you.

• Application Tips
• Navigating Campus
• Preparing for College
• How to Complete the FAFSA
• What to Expect After You Apply
• View All Guides
• Parents & Families
• School Counselors
• Información en Español
• Undergraduate Viewbook
• View All Resources

Search and Useful Links

Search the site, search suggestions, alert: harvard yard closed to the public.

Please note, Harvard Yard gates are currently closed. Entry will only be permitted to those with a Harvard ID via Johnston, Thayer, Widener, Sever and Solomon (Lamont) Gates. Guests are not allowed.

Last Updated: April 25, 2:24pm

Open Alert: Harvard Yard Closed to the Public

Learning a language at harvard.

Xin chào! That means “hello” in Vietnamese, and it was one of the first words I learned while studying a language here at Harvard! 

Due to Harvard’s Language Requirement , many students take one year of a language course—though some go on for longer while others learn multiple languages simultaneously! There are some exceptions to this requirement, such as the option to use a relevant AP credit. But even if you test out, you should still consider learning a language at Harvard. Hopefully, my experience can illustrate some reasons why! 

Something Different 

My current schedule is packed with 3 STEM-heavy courses, so it is refreshing to think about something different for a change. In fact, I often “procrastinate” on my coding homework to instead review flashcards on Quizlet! 

Connecting with Culture 

Language courses are more than just vocabulary and grammar; they are vessels into entirely new worlds. I am personally Vietnamese-American, so it has been incredibly rewarding to learn more about my heritage. But even if you do not identify as Vietnamese (many in the class don’t), learning about a new culture can be just as rewarding. 

Fun Events 

Related to the previous point, many language programs hold events to celebrate their respective cultures. The Vietnamese Language Program, for example, held cultural celebrations during Tết Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn Festival) and Tết Nguyên Đán (Lunar New Year)—with free Vietnamese food provided at both! 

The Vietnamese Language Program also hosted just-for-fun events, such as a “language table,” where we practiced Vietnamese through Scattergories. The entire semester culminated in a class outing to a local Vietnamese restaurant in Boston! 

Friends Outside of the Bubble 

Language courses can be incredibly diverse. In my Vietnamese class, for example, there are people from every grade, including students cross-registering from MIT and the nearby graduate schools. Most of my courses have consisted of other first-years, so it has been nice to meet people outside the “bubble.” Additionally, the small and intimate environment of the course fosters close connections with classmates, many of whom I am lucky to call my friends! 

The Joy of Knowing Another Language 

I saved the best (and cheesiest) for last! Yes, arguably, the best part of taking a language course is simply the joy of knowing another language. Something as simple as listening to a song in Vietnamese now feels more rewarding. Learning a language improved my understanding of the world—it can for you, too! 

I hope my story gave you some insight on what it is like to take a language course at Harvard!

Ricky Class of '27

Hello! My name is Ricky and I’m a first-year student thinking of studying statistics on a data science track.

Student Voices

Dear homesick international student at harvard college.

David Class of '25

2024 The Academic Comeback - Advice I Wish I Was Given as a First-Year

Samia Afrose Class of '25

My Harvard Monomyth

Denzel Class of '24

Advertisement

Hundreds at Harvard Protest Suspension of Pro-Palestinian Group

Students flooded Harvard Yard, the oldest part of the university’s campus, which officials recently closed to the public. The students set up tents for an “emergency rally.”

• Share full article

By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

• April 24, 2024

Hundreds of students gathered on Wednesday in Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Mass., to protest Israel’s war in Gaza and the Ivy League university’s suspension of a student group, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

In addition to the suspension, the university restricted access over the weekend to Harvard Yard, the oldest part of the university’s campus, to only Harvard students and faculty. It was an apparent effort to prevent protests like the ones that have overtaken many other American campuses in the past week, including at Columbia, Yale and the University of Southern California.

But Harvard’s actions appeared to have galvanized students, who flooded the yard’s grassy patches and erected tents as part of an “emergency rally” against the suspension of the student group, also known as Harvard for Palestine.

Jason Newton, a Harvard spokesman, said in an emailed statement that the university was monitoring the protest and “prioritizing the safety and security of the campus community.”

Harvard for Palestine was suspended after it, along with others, organized a protest last week in Harvard Yard. An email from the university that was obtained by the university’s student newspaper , The Harvard Crimson, demanded that the group “cease all organizational activities” through the spring term.

Pro-Palestinian groups at Harvard have faced a backlash over how they described the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7. The group leading Wednesday’s protest issued a letter at the time — initially signed by many other campus groups — saying that the Hamas-led attack “did not occur in a vacuum” and that, given the history of the region, the group held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

The university has been at the center of a series of controversies since the war. Its former president, Claudine Gay, resigned after being accused of plagiarism and while trying to fend off allegations that she had not done enough to protect Jewish students on campus.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice. He is from upstate New York. More about Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

Our Coverage of the U.S. Campus Protests

News and Analysis

The nation’s most entrenched protest is at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where pro-Palestinian protesters have occupied  the administration building and forced a campus closure until May 10.

Some colleges that initiated police crackdowns  on pro-Palestinian protests have since taken a different tack . Others have defended the move.

Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has plunged into Democrats’ political storm  over the war in Gaza, further polarizing an already tense debate, after she suggested  that some Jewish students are “pro-genocide.”

Denied a Second Chance: After Covid ruined high school graduation for the class of 2020, the response to campus protests might upend their college commencements .

Deepening Democratic Rifts: Scenes of chaos unfolding on campuses across the country  are stoking internal divisions within the Democratic Party and carry political risk as a major election year unfolds.

What Makes a Protest Antisemitic?: Pro-Palestinian student activists say their movement  is anti-Zionist but not antisemitic. It is not a distinction  that everyone accepts.

Featured Topics

Featured series.

A series of random questions answered by Harvard experts.

Explore the Gazette

Read the latest.

Alcohol is dangerous. So is ‘alcoholic.’

How old is too old to run?

Can we talk?

Andrew Scott (from left), Marisol Amaya, Caitlin Coyle, and Ashwin Vasan discuss changing attitudes toward aging with moderator Kay Lazar.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

America’s graying. We need to change the way we think about age.

Experts say instead of disability, focus needs to shift to ability, health, with greater participation, economically and socially

Alvin Powell

Harvard Staff Writer

People in their 70s, 80s, and even 90s run marathons, write books, and go to work daily. But the predominant national conversation on aging focuses on disability rather than ability, something experts say is a problem as participation of America’s older adults grows more important, economically and socially, as the nation ages.

And it’s not just the young with the attitude problem. Caitlin Coyle, director of UMass Boston’s Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging, said some of the biggest perpetuators of negative stereotypes are those growing older themselves.

“How we talk about it is powerful,” Coyle said Wednesday, as part of a discussion of the topic at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health . “We do a lot of internalized ageism with self-talk like ‘Oh, I feel so old today,’ or ‘I can’t do that,’ ‘I’m too old for that,’ or ‘I can’t stay up late.’ I think if we start to engage people in thinking about how they talk about aging outwardly — and also how they think about aging internally — we can really start to shift the societal narrative.”

The panelists at the event “A reexamination of aging: Living longer, happier, and healthier” agreed attitudes about aging set expectations for ourselves and others, but what’s also important are programs and policies crafted to encourage healthy aging — via prevention and risk-factor reduction, along with involvement in society, through work, volunteerism, family relationships, religious organizations, or other ways of engaging that can bring meaning to life.

“I think if we start to engage people in thinking about how they talk about aging outwardly — and also how they think about aging internally — we can really start to shift the societal narrative.” Caitlin Coyle

“We are expecting to live much longer than our parents and grandparents. And the structures we put in place to support healthy aging are really crucial,” said New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, a Chan School graduate and member of the panel. “At every turn, we are not just looking at the averted negative consequences of unhealthy aging, but looking at the aspirational, forward-looking indicators of healthy aging.”

The discussion hosted by The Studio at the Chan School was moderated by Kay Lazar, a reporter at The Boston Globe, and also featured Marisol Amaya, executive director of La Alianza Hispana, and Andrew Scott, professor of economics at London Business School and author of the book “The Longevity Imperative: How to Build a Healthier and More Productive Society to Support Our Longer Lives.”

Panelists acknowledged that declining health and rising disability are part of the landscape as one grows old, but Scott said it seems that when people think about aging they “go straight to the end” where those factors take on greater importance.

He attributed part of that to the “medicalization” of aging, which focuses on health problems and death. But what’s lost in between are, for many, years of increased life satisfaction, greater acceptance of oneself and others, decreased pressure to live up to ideals of how to look and behave, greater emotional stability during crises, and new opportunities to learn and develop new skills.

“The trouble with aging is we tend to go straight to the end of life. And that’s one of the reasons why we don’t like to think about a longer life being about having more future,” Scott said. “How do you think about that? How do you prepare for it? We see aging as an event — you’re 65 years old — but it’s a process that is relevant to all ages. What can you do to manage that process and how do you make sure you make the most of it?”

The tendency to view aging through a medical lens is not the only issue, however. Family structure in the nation has changed as people have fewer children and multigenerational living arrangements grow less common. This has led to an increasing tendency to segregate society by age and worsened the problem of isolation among the elderly.

At La Alianza Hispana, a social service agency focused on the Latinx community of Greater Boston, the elderly are provided programming based on individual preferences — bingo, for instance, isn’t for everyone and should be reserved for those who love it, Amaya said. Others want to play instruments, others to learn something new, and still others to teach.

Accordingly, the nonprofit’s elder-services program emphasizes flexibility, even hiring people still willing to work and able to draw on a lifetime of experience. Some are lacking in computer and other tech skills, but those can be taught, which the organization does, she said.

“We are flexible. We always encourage them to do more, empower them, because they see barriers and say, ‘I cannot do it,’” Amaya said.

As we create a society that is more elderly-friendly, Scott said thinking about the economics of living longer is important, since many fear outliving their resources.

But it’s also important to think about how to allow people to stay productive longer, which has to begin earlier in life by guarding one’s health through better habits, thinking about how to make jobs more age-friendly, and perhaps shifting roles from those that require strength to those that emphasize skill and experience.

A significant amount of attention must also be paid, panelists agreed, to reducing inequality in healthful aging. The trend toward healthier aging is not universal, with Black and brown communities making up a disproportionate number of those who die before 65, Vasan said. That highlights the importance of addressing preventative health in those communities in the decades before 65.

“I think inequity is a real missing piece in the dialogue, the public narrative, around longevity and aging,” Vasan said. “How do we create a civic expectation that healthier, longer lives are more equitably experienced? These are not mutually exclusive agendas. The equity agenda is central to the life expectancy agenda. There is no path that doesn’t go through equity. Addressing the causes of premature death gets us to healthier, longer lives for everybody.”

Share this article

You might like.

Researcher explains the human toll of language that makes addiction feel worse

No such thing, specialist says — but when your body is trying to tell you something, listen

Study finds that conversation – even online – could be an effective strategy to help prevent cognitive decline and dementia

When math is the dream

Dora Woodruff was drawn to beauty of numbers as child. Next up: Ph.D. at MIT.

Seem like Lyme disease risk is getting worse? It is.

The risk of Lyme disease has increased due to climate change and warmer temperature. A rheumatologist offers advice on how to best avoid ticks while going outdoors.

Three will receive 2024 Harvard Medal

In recognition of their extraordinary service

Board Elections 2024

The HEAA and Office of Advancement are thrilled to announce that the HEAA Board of Directors Election is open now through May 5, 2024.

Voting in this election is limited to ONLY Harvard Extension School degree holders. HES Alumni please vote for each of these open positions using your Harvard Key .

* You may click on each role title for a full job description and candidate name for their statement.

• Mark Benson
• Lori Blewett
• Jacob Caine
• Frank Caprino
• Robert Dieter
• Nathan Epstein
• Maleeha Habib
• Zena Harris
• Carlos Vargas
• Jonathan Freeman
• Theresa Knapp Enos
• Keith Ongeri

*To vote, you must log in using your Harvard Key. If you have not claimed your Harvard Key or experience any issues claiming your Harvard Key, please contact Harvard University IT at [email protected] or call 617-495-7777 for assistance.

Questions? Contact [email protected]

Harvard Division of Continuing Education

The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) at Harvard University is dedicated to bringing rigorous academics and innovative teaching capabilities to those seeking to improve their lives through education. We make Harvard education accessible to lifelong learners from high school to retirement.

AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC) Program: Fellowship Opportunity

The Community-Based HIV and Viral Hepatitis Fellowship is recruiting an MD, DO, NP or PA fellow for the 8/1/24-7/31/25 fellowship year. 

Fellows do a combination of primary care along with HIV, HBV, HCV, and latent TB care, learning how to manage all four independently while maintaining primary care skills. The fellowship also focuses on preparing trainees to become teachers, leaders, and mentors for primary care colleagues around the treatment and prevention of these four signature infectious diseases in marginalized populations.

To apply or for more information, please email Philip Bolduc, MD: [email protected]

May 6, 2024 – ERC Seminar – Kishor Hadkhale, PhD