"But sir, I don't think I really deserve it, it was mostly bull, really." This disclaimer from a student whose examination we have awarded a straight "A" is wondrously depressing. Alfred North Whitehead invented the only possible rejoinder: "Yes sir, what you wrote is nonsense, utter nonsense. But ah! Sir! It's the right kind of nonsense!"

Source: "Examsmanship and the Liberal Arts: A Study in Educational Epistemology"; essay; opening paragraph. Included in "The Norton Reader, An Anthology of epository prose with rhetorical materials" (1965)