Eliot Schrefer Quotes

Powerful Eliot Schrefer for Daily Growth

About Eliot Schrefer

Eliot Schrefer is an acclaimed American author, best known for his young adult novels that delve into complex themes such as identity, survival, and morality. Born in New York City in 1978, Schrefer grew up in a family deeply rooted in literary traditions. His mother, a journalist, and his father, a lawyer, nurtured his love for storytelling from an early age. Schrefer attended Brown University, where he studied Comparative Literature, further fueling his passion for words and narratives. After graduating, he worked as a journalist in New York City before deciding to focus on writing fiction full-time. His debut novel, "Endangered," published in 2009, was a remarkable achievement that earned him the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The novel tells the story of an orphaned gorilla and his struggle for survival in the Congo, reflecting Schrefer's lifelong fascination with wildlife and conservation. Schrefer's subsequent works, such as "Thunderbolt Mountain" (2011) and "Rescued" (2014), continue to explore the complexities of the animal world and our relationship with it. His stories often challenge readers to empathize with creatures that are often seen as other, deepening our understanding of what it means to be alive. In addition to his literary career, Schrefer is an active advocate for wildlife conservation and has worked with various organizations to raise awareness about endangered species. His writing continues to captivate readers of all ages, making him a significant voice in contemporary young adult literature.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Silence is not always an ending, but more often a pause before beginning again."

This quote suggests that silence doesn't necessarily signify the end, but rather, it can be a temporary pause, a moment of stillness, before embarking on a new journey or resuming an activity. Silence can provide a space for reflection, regrouping, or recharging, and it is often followed by renewed action or creativity.

"It was never about who could love more, but who could be loved."

This quote emphasizes that love is not a competition or a measure of one's worth based on their ability to give love; rather, it highlights the importance of being worthy of receiving love. It suggests that true love transcends the question of who can love more, but instead, focuses on the quality of the relationship, whether both parties are valued and respected in the bond they share. Essentially, it underscores the idea that love is about reciprocity, understanding, and being worthy of affection, rather than the quantity or intensity of one's feelings.

"The world had a way of showing you that even the most important things were fragile."

This quote emphasizes the delicate nature of significant aspects of life, suggesting that despite their importance, they are vulnerable to destruction or change. It encourages us to appreciate and cherish these important things, as they can be easily damaged or lost. In essence, it's a reminder that we should value our precious moments, relationships, and experiences, knowing that they may not last forever.

"To love something means to accept its fragility and impermanence."

This quote by Eliot Schrefer suggests that true love is not about seeking perfection or everlasting permanence in an object of affection; rather, it's about appreciating the delicate nature and transient qualities of the loved entity. It implies that loving something means understanding its vulnerability and understanding that change and endings are inevitable, yet continuing to cherish it wholeheartedly despite these realities.

"There's nothing so powerful as someone willing to fight for what they cannot have."

This quote underscores the immense strength that lies within an individual who is determined to strive for something, even when its acquisition seems impossible or uncertain. It highlights the resilience and tenacity of the human spirit, as well as our capacity to persevere against all odds in pursuit of our desires, values, or goals. It suggests that the willingness to fight, even for an unattainable objective, can be a potent force that drives personal growth, change, and ultimately, may lead to unforeseen success or transformation.

As someone who attended six different public schools across America, went to Harvard, and subsequently became a tutor in Manhattan's affluent Upper East Side, I've witnessed firsthand the differences in learning styles between public school educations and private.

- Eliot Schrefer

Private, Affluent, Became, Manhattan

The elite private tutor is typically ivy-educated and falls into one of two categories - a twenty-something pursuing an artistic career on the side, or someone older who has made a career out of college-prep. They are presentable, well-spoken, and are treated by doormen as guests more than as employees.

- Eliot Schrefer

Career, Private, Pursuing, Guests

Students raised on Park Avenue are born into family situations in which overachieving merely maintains the status quo, and therefore the market is primed for anyone offering services that provide an edge on local peers.

- Eliot Schrefer

Students, Peers, Quo, Status Quo

Line up a group of Horace Mann students, interview them, and take a look at their resumes, and you'll be hard pressed to pick out the students who require extra time. So then, what qualifies these students to receive special accommodations on the SAT?

- Eliot Schrefer

Students, Out, Line, Interview

When I was a teenager, what I most wanted to read were fantasy novels. Not Tolkien and Malory, but sword-and-sorcery pulp. I craved glowy blue magic, chainmail bikinis, dragons with unpronounceable names.

- Eliot Schrefer

Magic, Most Wanted, Read, Tolkien

I remember my guidance counselor, when I told her I wanted to apply to Harvard, she paused and said, 'That's in New York, right?' The funny thing is, I didn't really know. It was a few weeks before I was like, 'No, I think it's in Massachusetts.'

- Eliot Schrefer

I Remember, I Think, Weeks, Massachusetts

The most important factor in college admissions is a test that benefits those who are least prepared for college.

- Eliot Schrefer

College, Test, Benefits, Factor

You are literally never alone. While there are roughly 6.7 billion people on Earth, you may not feel that many of them at all care very much about your existence. But within your colon alone are living at least 1012 billion organisms, or roughly a thousand times the number of people on the planet. Stop your metabolic processes, and you stop theirs.

- Eliot Schrefer

Existence, Very, About, Roughly

At Horace Mann High School in affluent Riverdale, New York, one of the top schools in the country, those who receive double time on tests are plentiful enough to qualify as their own segment of the student body. Known to their peers as 2Ts, they participate in the same activities, get the same grades, and attend the same range of colleges.

- Eliot Schrefer

Country, Attend, Affluent, Segment

Anguish over the loss of a loved one or feelings of helplessness have complex roots. But in the end, they make you feel bad because they adjust your brain's chemistry. Happiness and its opposite are both electro-chemical reactions; those reactions are temporary and ineffable and could even have hidden benefits.

- Eliot Schrefer

Temporary, Bad, Benefits, Reactions

Elite private-school educations leave students unprepared for a standardized test with which their public school counterparts are innately familiar.

- Eliot Schrefer

Test, Which, Unprepared, Educations

Tutoring follows the lucrative philosophy of advertising: if you can manufacture a need, people with disposable resources will find ways to fill it.

- Eliot Schrefer

Will, Need, Follows, Lucrative

In my business - SAT tutoring - you get used to sighs. A client's mother frets over the sheer amount of work her daughter has to do to get her score up, until she reaches the resigned moment when she will sigh and observe that no one thought you could prepare for the SAT back when she took it - it was 'untutorable.'

- Eliot Schrefer

Thought, Prepare, Sigh, Resigned

Pick any scientific field, and you'll find that those snubbed by their communities, left feeling alone and despised, were often those on the forefront.

- Eliot Schrefer

Scientific, Often, Despised, Communities

The fact is that the College Board's products - the SAT, other standardized tests, the accompanying strategy guides - are sold at far higher than the cost to make them.

- Eliot Schrefer

College, Other, Sold, Board

The College Board is officially a non-profit. But all that means is that it doesn't have shareholders and that their financial accountings must be available to the public; it certainly doesn't mean that they're not also into making money.

- Eliot Schrefer

College, Means, Certainly, Board

The College Board is both in the business of test administration and test prep. If this feels inherently unfair, it should - it's like a doctor whacking your knee with a sledgehammer and then offering to patch you up.

- Eliot Schrefer

College, Feels, Inherently, Board

You can assume that the leaf you see let go of a branch and fall towards the ground has never been considered by any being but yourself. Catch it in your hand - or, even better, keep walking until one falls into your reach naturally - and it will have spent its whole time on the planet without ever touching the ground, only because of you.

- Eliot Schrefer

Reach, Been, Considered, Assume

Higher SAT scores mean better college matriculation rates. So it's no wonder that private schools in ultra-competitive environments would grease the qualifying process as much as possible.

- Eliot Schrefer

College, Private, Grease, Private Schools

Readers have always read high and low, and to fight that urge is to fight the freedom inherent in the act of reading itself. The only arguments that have any traction, as best as I can see it, are about whether the genre classification of 'young adult' should exist at all.

- Eliot Schrefer

Best, Young, About, Young Adult

With few exceptions, the publishing industry has come to a consensus: if a book has a young protagonist, and if its worldview is primarily interested in the questions that crop up when coming of age, then it's a young adult novel.

- Eliot Schrefer

Book, Young, Coming Of Age, Young Adult

Calling a book 'young adult' is only important in that it can help get a book to the right reader. After that, it's a useless abstraction and should be discarded.

- Eliot Schrefer

Young, Discarded, Reader, Young Adult

What SAT tutoring does is it invisibly alters the admissions pool so a school could try to be as egalitarian as they can, but if a student is SAT-tutored, and their score goes up 200 points in a year, and the college admissions committee has no idea that the student got tutored, all of a sudden it's shifting the pool back toward old money.

- Eliot Schrefer

College, Student, Year, Egalitarian

Colleges accept the highest sub-scores from different administrations. So if a student takes the SAT many times instead of once, she has a larger pool of scores from which to pick out the highest math, critical reading, and writing.

- Eliot Schrefer

Student, Critical, Larger, Math

The SAT allows less-privileged students access to universities that previously were the bastions of the wealthy.

- Eliot Schrefer

Access, Universities, Were, Sat

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