Books: Notes from the Mountain

NO EASY VICTORIES by John W. Gardner, edited by Helen Rowan. 177 pages. Harper & Row. $4.95.

John W. Gardner is a political man for all seasons. The chairman of the Urban Coalition, he is a Republican who served under both Democratic Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, spending 21 years as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare in Johnson’s Cabinet. When Gardner was HEW Secretary, Johnson effusively declared that he “can take you up on the mountain and show you the promised land. And what’s more, he can lead you there.” This modest book is a collection of excerpts from Gardner’s speeches and writings, including quotes from his two earlier works, Excellence and Self-Renewal. In it, as he deals with contemporary social problems, Gardner demonstrates a depth of moral vision that is matched by a provocative wit.

∙ON QUALITY AND EQUALITY: “The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”

∙ON CHANGE: “The word ‘creativity’ has achieved a dizzying popularity. It is more than a word today, it is an incantation. It is a kind of psychic wonder drug, powerful and presumably painless, and everyone wants the prescription.”

∙ON TRADITION: “When I say that we must look to the future rather than the past, I’m not suggesting that we should not revere our ancestors. Heaven forbid. The nearer I get to being one, the more reverent I feel.”

∙ON LEADERSHIP: “I have a certain skepticism about the indiscriminate use of the word ‘leader.’ I always remember the wife who read the fortunetelling card her husband got from a penny weighing machine. ‘You are a leader she read, ‘with a magnetic personality and strong character—intelligent, witty and attractive to the opposite sex.’ Then she turned the card over and added, ‘It has your weight wrong, too.’ ”

∙ON INSTITUTIONS: “Self-congratulation should be taken in small doses. It is habit-forming, and most human institutions are far gone in addiction.”

∙ON UNIVERSITIES: “As long as the universities have no conception of themselves other than the supermarket conception, they will have to resign themselves to the fact that people will walk in off the street, buy a box of Wheaties, and walk out.”

∙ON HAZARD AND HOPE: “The prospects never looked brighter and the problems never looked tougher. Anyone who isn’t stirred by both of those statements is too tired to be of much use to us in the days ahead.”

∙ON THE LIMITS OF HUMAN NATURE: “A good man isn’t good for everything.”