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László Polgár Quotes

22 quotes from László Polgár — Hungarian chess teacher and educational psychologist who raised three daughters to become chess prodigies, proving 'gen….

Genius is made, not born.

Genius

It is very important that the child likes what they are doing; only then will it be possible to inspire a long period of fruitful labor.

Education

The fact that I did not send my daughters to school is, of course, connected to the fact that I hold an unfavorable opinion of it.

Education

Contemporary schools do not educate for life.

Education

Contemporary schools do not promote a love of learning.

Education

They raise neither autonomous people nor communally-oriented ones.

Education

The teacher cannot 'tailor' the study material for most of the students' individual needs.

Education

Too often they must make the whole class mechanically repeat more or less identical tasks.

Education

Contemporary schools do not educate for life; they equalize everyone to a very low level.

Education

Contemporary schools are separate from real life in that they function sort of as laboratories.

Education

My daughters, who have never visited a school, grew up much more in the context of real life.

Education

They do not inspire to great achievements; they raise neither autonomous people nor communally-oriented ones.

Education

Let us take this step by step, and start with your first remark: schools do not educate for life.

Education

One learns not for the sake of school, but of life.

Education

A genius is not born but is educated and trained. When a child is born healthy, it is a potential genius.

László Polgár, Washington Post, 1992

She is a killer and smells checkmate twenty moves in advance.

Nigel Short, Grandmaster

The experiment is not finished yet.

László Polgár, The Independent, 1993

Geniuses are made, not born. Genius equals work and fortunate circumstances.

László Polgár

Work, love, freedom, and luck. But the key is hard work, because hard work creates luck; work plus luck equals genius; and a genius is more likely to be happy.

László Polgár, to the Independent, 1993

It's obviously a very provocative statement. What my father is trying to say is that you have to focus a lot on the work and not just rely on your talent. He believes that every healthy child is a talented one and I completely agree.

Judit Polgár, Chess.com interview

A child does not need play separate from work, but meaningful action.

László Polgár, Raise a Genius!

If to play like a girl meant anything in chess, it would mean relentless aggression.

Garry Kasparov, on Judit Polgár

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