John W. Gardner

1912–2002 · U.S. public official & reformer; author of Self-Renewal

John William Gardner (1912–2002) was an American writer and reformer who served as U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, led the Carnegie Corporation, and founded the citizens’ lobby Common Cause. His best-known book, Self-Renewal (1964), argued that people and institutions must keep renewing themselves to stay creative — the context in which the “rarely tidy” line first appears.

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“Creative minds are rarely tidy”

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