Wise Words
Education
“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”
Abigail Adams, (1744–1818), wife of John Adams, 2nd President of the US
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
Henry Brooks Adams, (1838–1918), American novelist, journalist, historian, & academic
“They know enough who know how to learn.”
Henry Brooks Adams, (1838–1918), American novelist, journalist, historian, & academic
“Education is not received. It is achieved.”
Anonymous
“Public school is a place of detention for children placed in the care of teachers who are afraid of the principal, principals who are afraid of the school board, school boards who are afraid of the parents, parents who are afraid of the children, and children who are afraid of nobody.”
Anonymous
“We learn well and fast when we experience the consequences of what we do—and don’t do.”
Anonymous
“All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.”
Aristotle, (384 BC–322 BC), Greek philosopher
“Educated men are as much superior to uneducated men as the living are to the dead.”
Aristotle, (384 BC–322 BC), Greek philosopher
“Education is the best provision for old age.”
Aristotle, (384 BC–322 BC), Greek philosopher
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Aristotle, (384 BC–322 BC), Greek philosopher
“Our schools should get five years to get back to where they were in 1963. If they're still bad maybe we should declare educational bankruptcy, give the people their money and let them educate themselves and start their own schools.”
William John Bennett, American conservative pundit, politician, & political theorist
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!”
Derek Bok, American lawyer & educator
“Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.”
Omar Bradley, (1893–1981), American military leader
“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”
George Washington Carver, (1864–1943), American scientist, botanist, educator, & inventor
“What greater or better gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth?”
Marcus T. Cicero, (106 BC–43 BC), Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, & political theorist
“Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
John Cotton Dana, (1856–1929), American librarian and museum director
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
John Dewey, (1859–1952), American philosopher, psychologist, & educational reformer
“Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance.”
Albert Einstein, (1879–1955), German-born American theoretical physicist
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
Albert Einstein, (1879–1955), German-born American theoretical physicist
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he knows.”
Epictetus, (c. 55–c. 135), Greek philosopher
“Only the educated are free.”
Epictetus, (c. 55–c. 135), Greek philosopher
“Whoso neglects learning in his youth, / Loses the past and is dead for the future.”
Euripides, (ca. 480 BC–406 BC), Greek tragedian
“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.”
Edward Everett, (1794–1865), American politician
“An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t. It’s knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it’s knowing how to use the information you get.”
William Feather, (1889–1981), American publisher & author
“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
Benjamin Franklin, (1706–1790), author, printer, politician, scientist, statesman, & diplomat
“America's founding fathers did not intend to take religion out of education. Many of the nation's greatest universities were founded by evangelists and religious leaders; but many of these have lost the founders concept and become secular institutions. Because of this attitude, secular education is stumbling and floundering.”
Billy Graham, American evangelist
“The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free government.”
Sam Houston, (1793–1863), American statesman, politician, & soldier
“A College Degree is a Social Certificate, not a proof of competence.”
Elbert Hubbard, (1856–1915), American writer, publisher, artist, & philosopher
“You can lead a boy to college, but you cannot make him to think.”
Elbert Hubbard, (1856–1915), American writer, publisher, artist, & philosopher
“For the most part, colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.”
Robert Ingersoll, (1833–1899), American political leader & orator
“It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.”
Robert Ingersoll, (1833–1899), American political leader & orator
“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of the body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.”
Thomas Jefferson, (1743–1826), 3rd President of the US
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
Thomas Jefferson, (1743–1826), 3rd President of the US
“The education of a man is never complete until he dies.”
Robert E. Lee, (1807–1870), US Army officer, engineer, & college president
“Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.”
James Madison, (1751–1836), American political philosopher & 4th President of the US
“Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men — the balance-wheel of the social machinery.”
Horace Mann, (1796–1859), American education reformer & politician
“The teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.”
Horace Mann, (1796–1859), American education reformer & politician
“He was sent, as usual, to a public school, where a little learning was painfully beaten into him, and from thence to the university, where it was carefully taken out of him.”
T.L. Peacock, (1785–1866), English satirist and author
“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.”
Plato, (428/427 BC–348/347 BC), Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, & writer
“The life which is unexamined is not worth living.”
Plato, (428/427 BC–348/347 BC), Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, & writer
“The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.”
Plato, (428/427 BC–348/347 BC), Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, & writer
“The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.”
Plutarch, (c. AD 46–120), Roman historian, biographer, & essayist
“A little learning is a dangerous thing; / Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: / There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, / And drinking largely sobers us again.”
Alexander Pope, (1688–1744), English poet
“Invest in yourself, in your education. There's nothing better.”
Sylvia Porter, (1913–1991), American economist and journalist
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur, author, & motivational speaker
“School is an invaluable adjunct to the home, but it is a wretched substitute for it.”
Theodore Roosevelt, (1858–1919), 26th President of the US
“To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
Theodore Roosevelt, (1858–1919), 26th President of the US
“Teach by doing whenever you can, and only fall back upon words when doing it is out of the question.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau, (1712–1778), philosopher, writer, & composer
“The teacher’s art consists of this: To turn the child’s attention from trivial details and to guide his thoughts continually towards relations of importance which he will one day need to know, that he may judge rightly of good and evil in society.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau, (1712–1778), philosopher, writer, & composer
“Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.”
John Ruskin, (1819–1900), British author, poet, artist, & social thinker
“To my mind by far the greatest danger in scholarship… is not that the individual may fail to master the thought of a school but that a school may succeed in mastering the thought of the individual.”
Geoffrey Sampson, British linguist, professor at the University of Sussex
“The well-meaning people who talk about education as if it were a substance distributable by coupon in large or small quantities never exhibit any understanding of the truth that you cannot teach anybody anything that he does not want to learn.”
Geoffrey Sampson, British linguist, professor at the University of Sussex
“I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think.”
Anne Sullivan, (1866–1936), teacher, best known as tutor of Helen Keller
“Practice is the best of all instructors.”
Publilius Syrus, Latin writer of mimes, flourished in the 1st century BC
“The aim of all education is, or should be, to teach people to educate themselves.”
Arnold J. Toynbee, (1889–1975), British historian
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
Mark Twain, (1835–1910), American author & humorist
“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”
Mark Van Doren, (1894–1972), American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet & critic
“They teach in academies far too many things, and far too much that is useless.”
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, (1749–1832), German writer
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teach explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
William Arthur Ward, (1921 – 1994), American writer
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”
H.G. Wells, (1866–1946), English author
“Schoolmasters and parents exist to be grown out of.”
John Wolfenden, (1906–1985), British educationalist
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
William Butler Yeats, (1865–1939), Irish poet & dramatist
Top 