As stated on: dewey.pragmatism.org:
Besides his role as a primary originator of both functionalist and behaviorist psychology, Dewey was a major inspiration for several allied movements that have shaped 20th century thought, including empiricism, humanism, naturalism, contextualism, and process philosophy. For over 50 years Dewey was the voice for a liberal and progressive democracy that has shaped the destiny of America and the world.
For myself I am still discovering more about the Human impact of John Dewey. What has enamoured me most is his insight to the human condition and the importance of diversity to a society's survival. Just as compelling is his analysis of human learning; the Integration of Art, Inquiry, and Education.
Video Link: John Dewey: His Life & Work
Additional websites:
Quotes from the book Human Nature and Conduct:
"Moral principles that exalt themselves by degrading human nature are in effect committing suicide. Or else they involve human nature in unending civil war, and treat it as a hopeless mess of contradictory forces."
----pg 2
"The intelligent acknowledgment of the continuity of nature, man and society will alone secure a growth of morals which will be serious without being fanatical, aspiring without sentimentality, adapted to reality without conventionality, sensible without taking the form of calculation of profits, idealistic without being romantic."
----pg 13
"Exaggerate as much as we like the native differences of Patagonians and Greeks, Sioux Indians and Hindoos, Bushmen and Chinese, their original differences will bear no comparison to the amount of difference found in custom and culture. Since such a diversity cannot be attributed to an original identity, the development of native impulse must be stated in terms of acquired habits, not the growth of customs in terms of instincts." ----pg91
"Habits become negative limits because they are first positive agencies. The more numerous our habits the wider the field of possible observation and foretelling. The more flexible they are, the more refined is perception in its descrimination and the more delicate the presentation evoked by imagination."
----pg 175
"In quality, the good is never twice alike. It never copies itself. It is new every morning, fresh every evening. It is unique in its every presentation. For it marks the resolution of a distinctive complication of competing habits and impulses which can never repreat itself."
----pg 175