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 Macy (1866–1936) American Educator
Milton calls the university A stony-hearted step-mother.
—Augustine Birrell (1850–1933) English Politician, Barrister, Academic, Author
Never regard study as a duty but as an enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later works belong.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The avocation of assessing the failures of better men can be turned into a comfortable livelihood, providing you back it up with a Ph.D.
—Nelson Algren (1909–81) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education.
—Zhuang Zhou (369BCE–286BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
—Isaac Asimov (1919–92) Russian-born American Children’s Books Writer, Short Story Writer, Academic, Novelist, Essayist
There is no education like adversity.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
You don’t have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.
—J. D. Salinger (1919–2010) American Actor
Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Entrepreneur, Business
The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Art Critic, Social Thinker
‘Tis education forms the common mind: just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
—B. F. Skinner (1904–90) American Psychologist, Social Philosopher, Inventor, Author
I can prove at any time that my education tried to make another person out of me than the one I became. It is for the harm, therefore, that my educators could have done me in accordance with their intentions that I reproach them; I demand from their hands the person I now am, and since they cannot give him to me, I make of my reproach and laughter a drumbeat sounding in the world beyond.
—Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
Education is the transmission of civilization.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Entrepreneur, Business
‘Tis well enough for a servant to be bred at an University. But the education is a little too pedantic for a gentleman.
—William Congreve (1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
—Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803) Italian Dramatist
People commonly educate their children as they build their houses, according to some plan they think beautiful, without considering whether it is suited to the purposes for which they are designed.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
—Anatole France (1844-1924) French Novelist
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
While formal schooling is an important advantage, it is not a guarantee of success nor is its absence a fatal handicap.
—Ray Kroc (1902–84) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
I was asked to memorize what I did not understand; and, my memory being so good, it refused to be insulted in that manner.
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) English Occultist, Mystic, Magician
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 (1918-91) American Baptist Religious Leader
He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
We live less and less, and we learn more and more. Sensibility is surrendering to intelligence.
—Remy de Gourmont (1858–1915) French Poet, Novelist, Critic
The best education in the world is that got by struggling to get a living.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Social Activist, Lawyer, Orator
Without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Muslim Religious Leader, Human Rights Activist
Much learning does not teach understanding.
—Heraclitus (535BCE–475BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
The problem of education is two fold: first to know, and then to utter. Everyone who lives any semblance of an inner life thinks more nobly and profoundly than he speaks.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
A college education shows a man how little other people know.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
My idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the young and inflame their intellects.
—Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) American Educator
You’ll likely learn more of enduring value from an hour of wise googling than from any course.
—Marty Nemko (b.1950) American Career Coach, Author
Liberal education develops a sense of right, duty and honor; and more and more in the modern world, large business rests on rectitude and honor as well as on good judgment.
—Charles William Eliot (1834–1926) American Educator, Academic
Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
—Jacques Barzun (1938–2010) French-born American Historian, Philosophers
No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots will make a democracy out of an illiterate people.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
The purpose of an education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
—Malcolm Forbes (1919–90) American Publisher
We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. But they’ve got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go.
—Timothy Leary (1920–96) American Psychologist, Author
There is no virtue in being uncritical; nor is it a habit to which the young are given. But criticism is only the burying beetle that gets rid of what is dead, and, since the world lives by creative and constructive forces, and not by negation and destruction, it is better to grow up in the company of prophets than of critics.
—Richard Livingstone (1880–1960) British Scholar, Educator, Academic
There are five tests of the evidence of education — correctness and precision in the use of the mother tongue; refined and gentle manners, the result of fixed habits of thought and action; sound standards of appreciation of beauty and of worth, and a character based on those standards; power and habit of reflection; efficiency or the power to do.
—Nicholas Murray Butler (1862–1947) American Philosopher, Diplomat, Educator
The youth of Italy shall be trained so that in this country there shall be a place for every person and every person shall be in that place. I am here today and gone tomorrow; but let no one think fascism goes with me.
—Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) Italian Head of State, Politician
Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.
—Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
The sure foundations of the state are laid in knowledge, not in ignorance; and every sneer at education, at culture, at book learning, which is the recorded wisdom of the experience of mankind, is the demagogue’s sneer at intelligent liberty, inviting national degeneracy and ruin.
—George William Curtis (1824–92) American Essayist, Public Speaker, Editor, Author
That’s the public-school system all over. They may kick you out, but they never let you down.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) English Novelist, Humorist, Writer
There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.
—James Truslow Adams (1878–1949) American Historian, Writer
The system — the American one, at least — is a vast and noble experiment. It has been polestar and exemplar for other nations. But from kindergarten until she graduates from college the girl is treated in it exactly like her brothers. She studies the same subjects, becomes proficient at the same sports. Oh, it is a magnificent lore she learns, education for the mind beyond anything Jane Austen or Saint Theresa or even Mrs. Pankhurst ever dreamed. It is truly Utopian. But Utopia was never meant to exist on this disheveled planet.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer of Children’s Books
Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
—John Ciardi (1916–86) American Poet, Teacher, Etymologist, Translator
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
He is wise who knows the sources of knowledge — who knows who has written and where it is to be found.
—Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823–86) American Presbyterian Theologian
The result of the educative process is capacity for further education.
—John Dewey (1859-1952) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator
The greatest gift that Oxford gives her sons is, I truly believe, a genial irreverence toward learning, and from that irreverence love may spring.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canada Journalist, Playwright, Academic, Critic, Novelist
The education of a man is never complete until he dies.
—Robert E. Lee (1807–70) American Military Leader, Engineer
The most important aspect of freedom of speech is freedom to learn. All education is a continuous dialogue-questions and answer that pursue every problem to the horizon. That is the essence of academic freedom.
—William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American Judge
Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know.
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-born American Novelist
The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.
—John Dewey (1859-1952) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator
There can be but a single goal of education, and that — education to courage.
—Alfred Adler (1870–1937) Austrian Psychologist, Psychiatrist
A learned man is an idler who kills time with study. Beware of his false knowledge : it is more dangerous than ignorance.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.
—John F. Kennedy (1917-63) American Head of State, Journalist
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 Bennett (b.1943) American Politician, Political Theorist, Government Official
The test and the use of man’s education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind.
—Jacques Barzun (1938–2010) French-born American Historian, Philosophers
Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet
Education is hanging around until you’ve caught on.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Federal aid promotes the idea that federal school money is ‘free’ money, and thus gives the people a distorted picture of the cost of education. I was distressed to find that five out of six high school and junior college students recently interviewed in Phoenix said they favored federal aid because it would mean more money for local schools and ease the financial burden on Arizona taxpayers. The truth, of course, is that the federal government has no funds except those it extracts from the taxpayers who resided in the various States. The money that the federal government pays to State X for education has been taken from the citizens of State X in federal taxes and comes back to them, minus the Washington brokerage fee.
—Barry Goldwater (1909–98) American Elected Representative, Businessperson, Politician
The best brought-up children are those who have seen their parents as they are. Hypocrisy is not the parent’s first duty.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet