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Inaugural Address, Stanford University, 

 October i, 1891 



We come together today for the first time as teachers and 

 students. With this relation the life of the Leland Stanford 

 Junior University begins. It is such personal contact of young 

 men and young women with scholars and investigators which 

 constitutes the life of the university. It is for us as teachers 

 and students in the university's first year to lay the foundations 

 of a school which may last as long as human civilization. Ours 

 is the youngest of the universities, but it is heir to the wisdom 

 of all the ages, and with this inheritance it has the promise 

 of a rapid and sturdy growth. 



Our university has no history to fall back upon; no memories 

 of great teachers haunt its corridors; in none of its rooms 

 appear the traces which show where a great man has lived or 

 worked. No tender associations cling, ivy-like, to its fresh, 

 new walls. It is hallowed by no traditions. It is hampered 

 by none. Its finger posts all point forward. Traditions and 

 associations it is ours to make. From our work the future of 

 the university will grow, as the splendid lily from the modest 

 bulb. 



But the future, with its glories and its responsibilities, will 

 be in other hands. It is ours at the beginning to give the uni- 

 versity its form, its tendencies, its customs. The power of 

 precedent will cause to be repeated over and over again every- 

 thing that we do — our errors as well as our wisdom. It be- 

 comes us, then, to begin the work modestly, as under the eye 

 of the coming ages. We must lay the foundations broad and 

 firm, so as to give full support to whatever edifice the future 

 may build. Ours is the humbler task, but not the least in im- 

 portance, and our work will not be in vain if all that we do 

 is done in sincerity. As sound as the rocks from which these 

 walls are hewn should be the work of every teacher who comes 

 within them. 



We hope to give to our students the priceless legacy of the 

 educated man, the power of knowing what really is. The 

 higher education should bring men into direct contact with 

 truth. It should help to free them from the dead hands of old 



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