Dissertation Defense Quotes

And like so many of us in youth ministry, he explains at the end of the letter that he felt small next to the significance of the boy’s deep theological question. It is more than ironic that the arrogant young man felt insecure next to the ten-year-old’s question. Bonhoeffer never doubted himself in defense of his dissertation or while wrestling with Harnack in his seminars. But in the shadow of the ten-year-old and his cosmic question raised by the lived sorrow over his dead dog, the overly confident Bonhoeffer sits in fear and trembling.

A man walked into a Christian bookstore in an Arabic-speaking country. “I want your best book on the defense of Christianity.” The bookstore manager handed him Evidence That Demands A Verdict in Arabic. As the man left he exclaimed, “I’m doing my dissertation on destroying Christianity.” Six months later the storeowner baptized the student who had become a believer.

All told, the French made seven dives in Archimède during the first part of Project FAMOUS. When I returned home, I hunkered down for a final 10-month push to finish writing my dissertation, “The Nature of Triassic Continental Rift Structures in the Gulf of Maine.” My oral defense was another tense moment, with several faculty members tossing their toughest questions at me. But all the sacrifice paid off. I passed. I had my Ph.D. degree, and for the rest of my life, nobody could tell me that I couldn’t do it.

You know who she was? My intellect. When I opened the door and there she stood, with her sassy red reading glasses and fitted skirt and leather bookbag, I thought, who the hell are you? Crouching into a defensive posture and looking at her warily out of the corner of my eye. Watch out, woman. To which she replied, I’m Lidia. I have a desire toward language and knowledge that will blow your mind. And I’m here to write a dissertation. Yeah. Right. Whatever. And anyway, where did you even come from?