In this article, the author argues that honors study flourishes most when rooted in a strong community, a community of learners (both students and faculty members) from different disciplines and levels of experience, who sustain a broad and ongoing conversation with one another. To him, it is the "heart" of honors study, whatever other goals a program might wish to achieve. In an honors program a context can be framed, a community developed, so as to serve another valuable purpose: to help students accept the value of failure. For many honors students, failure might not be something they are accustomed to. But as Wendell Berry (1987) explains, failure is a necessary part of the human experience. By precisely defining the context in which academic standards apply, Berry's argument cuts two ways. Academic standards and thus the possibility of failure are necessary; at the same time, those standards speak to a limited range of achievement and failure. The author stresses that an honors program with a strong communal sense can help to maintain the balance that Berry advocates. (Contains 13 notes.)