Guidance for how to make a life, not just a living

We, desperate for a sense of purpose in the middle of all that carnage, recognized they had to be larger than life, so they became so. That illustrates a hunger that Sept. 11 didn't create, but merely exposed.

On not knowing it all:

When I teach my Bible course, [it shows that] you have to learn to read not only with your eyes, but [with] the eyes of others. You have to understand the point of view of the person who is writing this, and the people for whom it was originally written. How do you make the connection between the original audience and yourself?

There is a range of ways to do that. But [it] teaches intellectual adventurousness, which is important for the life of the mind.

It also teaches intellectual modesty, which means you're not likely to get it all, so you have an obligation to a certain amount of deference. That is the most exciting thing you can teach kids, because by and large, if they're here at Harvard in the first place, they think they know it all. Not only do you not know it all, but it can't all be known.

I do not want to say people should take a course in the Bible or the history of civilization so they can do x, y, or z. But they won't know any of those until they explore what they know nothing about. This is very different from a fast-food restaurant, where you know what you're going to get. This is a high-class restaurant where the menu is in a foreign language you don't understand, and you're afraid you'll get snails or something that tastes awful.

On consumerism versus moral curiosity:

Today's students are the largest consumer market in the history of the world. They're not looked upon as moral beings, but as consumers. Their concern is to have vast amounts of money to spend on useless things that give momentary pleasure and sensations, but like toys under the Christmas tree, they are suddenly broken or useless and there is a desire for more.

Yet they as people are more than consumers.

I am utterly convinced, both by long tenure and recent observation, that young people are terribly eager to know what it means to be good. They are very interested in knowing it, but very few places define it. They won't get much of it in the media, in public or political life, but they have a notion that there is goodness somewhere.

That is what moral curiosity is. If we can respond to that at the right age, much good can be accomplished. We're laying down for these kids a kind of foundation [from] which they'll live for the rest of their lives. College is not a waiting room but its own reality that ought to be taken seriously. What happens there affects the way they live the rest of their lives.

On questioning oneself about what's good and what's bad:

Everybody reading the paper has a visceral reaction; either it's good or it's bad. One ought to, as a daily exercise, ask oneself: Why is it good? Why is it bad? And what are some of the issues that I can respond to, that I am interested in? Why do I think that it is unfortunate that the Republicans control the Congress? Or why is it a great thing? Why do I think it is a bad thing to go to Iraq, or why is it morally responsible? I don't want to rely on politicians or media pundits. How can I exercise those views?

Everybody has a capacity for moral curiosity.

• First in a series of occasional articles.

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