schools-in-asia

"The self-confidence Doon instils is the courage to walk your own road, if necessary, alone..."

"If I had anything to do with this place, I'd close it down."

"The boys should leave Doon as members of an aristocracy, but it must be an aristocracy of service inspired by ideas of unselfishness, not one of privilege, wealth or position."

"By 14 he should have learnt all the ordinary principles of social behavior. He should know how to stand up and speak to a variety of different types of people -- to his own mother, to someone else's mother, to his father, to his schoolmasters, to servants, to Mahatma Gandhi or to the Viceroy, and to do this without any self-consciousness... At fourteen a boy should have constructed a framework of competence in language, in mathematical ability, and in social behavior. After that age he is, as it were, filling in a design to the framework. In short he learning to exercise taste... At 16, he acquired taste, a sense of the beautiful and the ugly, of the strong and the weak, of good and evil... At 17 must come another quality, less instinctive and requiring a maturer mind: he must acquire a capacity for judgement."

"For years after I left, I thought of Doon as a kind of jungle, and looked back on it with a shudder. I was teased and bullied by my classmates and my seniors because of my interest in studies and reading, because of my lack of interest in games, because of my unwillingness to join gangs and groups, because of my height -- and, most importantly of all -- because I would get so furious when I was bullied. No doubt, if in my teens I had been more relaxed about things, or if I had had more of a sense of humor, things wouldn't have been so bad. But I wasn't, and I didn't, and they were. My parents made enormous sacrifices to send me here. They never had a lot of money. Sending me to Doon was perhaps the best investment they ever made."

"Doon is a unisexual Victorian relic. Make it co-educational!"

"Girls should not be deprived of studying at Doon"

"It would not be untrue to say that the foundations of Indian Mountaineering were laid by masters and boys of The Doon School."

"There were fifteen boys that first morning. The equipment consisted of four desks about ten feet long, two tables and two chairs, a few McGuffey’s Readers, a few geographies, arithmetics and ninth-grade grammars. I was President; Mrs. Hibbard was the faculty."

"I cannot think of a more pleasant environment in this country that is most conducive to serious study than the campus of Silliman University."

"What is it that Silliman University wears under your necktie that is your heart but which shines forth on your face? … they are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control .. these are fruits of the Spirit …they are what Silliman wants you to wear in your hearts."

"Via Veritas Vita - "The Way, The Truth, The Life""

"Often I have marveled over the far-seeing vision and crusading spirit of philanthropy that had actuated the kind soul who, in a land not his own founded this Institute to impart to our youth a culture and a faith buttressed by upright moral principles."

"Every once in a while, my mind would catch, however faintly, strains of music from long, long ago, when my elder brother, fresh from what seemed to me then a wonderful adventure in a world far from home, used to sing that sweet song with words I can still remember — "Silliman Beside the Sea."

"Let me start off by admitting that I am quite nervous about giving this speech for a couple of reasons. First, because I am speaking at the distinguished Silliman University where my grandfather, John Gokongwei Sr., went to high school. I never had the chance to meet him since he passed away when my father was only thirteen. But I am very honored to be speaking on the hallowed and historic grounds where he went to school more than 80 years ago. The other reason I am nervous is because I am speaking to the 2007 graduating class of Silliman. Given your Sillimanian pedigree, the world has high expectations of you."

"I have always held the highest regard for Silliman University. I have many colleagues in UP - members of our faculty who are graduates of this institution and I am very impressed by them."

"It is a privilege of mine to be here. In 2003, I was requested to be the commencement speaker for the graduating class of the University of the Philippines-Diliman. And after I gave that address, I said to myself-and this is true-the only other invitation that I will accept after UP Diliman is Silliman University. I have actually been waiting for almost three years. And I would have waited 30 more years to address you."