Background Image

...

Resistance To Improvement Contradicts The Noblest Instincts Of The Race. It Begets Its Opposite. The Fanaticism Of Reform Is Only The Raging Of The Accumulated Waters Caused By The Obstructions Which An Ultra Conservatism Has Thrown Across The Stream Of Progress; And Revolution Itself Is But The Sudden Overwhelming And Sweeping Away Of Impediments That Should Have Been Seasonably Removed.

-Horace Mann

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Resistance To Improvement Contradicts

Horace Mann

...

Resistance To Improvement Contradicts The Noblest Instincts Of The Race. It Begets Its Opposite. The Fanaticism Of Reform Is Only The Raging Of The Accumulated Waters Caused By The Obstructions Which An Ultra Conservatism Has Thrown Across The Stream Of Progress; And Revolution Itself Is But The Sudden Overwhelming And Sweeping Away Of Impediments That Should Have Been Seasonably Removed.

Views: 53658

Topic

More From Horace Mann

Man ... Has An Inborn Religious Sentiment That Whispers Of A God To His Inmost Soul, As A Shell Taken From The Deep Yet Echoes Forever The Ocean's Roar.

If Any Man Seeks For Greatness, Let Him Forget Greatness And Ask For Truth, And He Will Find Both.

The Education Already Given To The People Creates The Necessity Of Giving Them More.

Every Nerve That Can Thrill With Pleasure, Can Also Agonize With Pain.

There Is A Deeper Pleasure In Following Truth To The Scaffold Or The Cross, Than In Joining The Multitudinous Retinue, And Mingling Our Shouts With Theirs, When Victorious Error Celebrates Its Triumphs.

Astronomy Is One Of The Sublimest Fields Of Human Investigation. The Mind That Grasps Its Facts And Principles Receives Something Of The Enlargement And Grandeur Belonging To The Science Itself. It Is A Quickener Of Devotion.

Superiority To Circumstances Is One Of The Most Prominent Characteristics Of Great Men.

Characteristics

They Who Set An Example Make A Highway. Others Follow The Example, Because It Is Easier To Travel On A Highway Than Over Untrodden Grounds.

Observation - Activity Of Both Eyes And Ears.

The Highest Service We Can Perform For Others Is To Help Them Help Themselves.

Affectation Hides Three Times As Many Virtues As Charity Does Sins.

Had I The Power, I Would Scatter Libraries Over The Whole Land As The Sower Sows His Wheatfield.

Where A Love Of Natural Beauty Has Been Cultivated, All Nature Becomes A Stupendous Gallery, As Much Superior In Form And In Coloring To The Choicest Collections Of Human Art, As The Heavens Are Broader And Loftier Than The Louvre Or The Vatican.

To Pity Distress Is But Human; To Relieve It Is Godlike.

A House Without Books Is Like A Room Without Windows. No Man Has A Right To Bring Up His Children Without Surrounding Them With Books, If He Has The Means To Buy Them.

He Who Shuts Out Truth, By The Same Act Opens The Door To All The Error That Supplies Its Place.

In Such A World As Ours The Idle Man Is Not So Much A Biped As A Bivalve; And The Wealth Which Breeds Idleness, Of Which The English Peerage Is An Example, And Of Which We Are Beginning To Abound In Specimens In This Country, Is Only A Sort Of Human Oyster Bed, Where Heirs And Heiresses Are Planted, To Spend A Contemptible Life Of Slothfulness In Growing Plump And Succulent For The Grave-worms' Banquet.

Love Not Only Occupies The Higher Lobes Of The Brain, But Crowds Out The Lower To Make Room For Its Expansion.

Above All, Let The Poor Hang Up The Amulet Of Temperance In Their Homes.

If Ever There Was A Cause, If Ever There Can Be A Cause, Worthy To Be Upheld By All Of Toil Or Sacrifice That The Human Heart Can Endure, It Is The Cause Of Education. It Has Intrinsic And Indestructible Merits. It Holds The Welfare Of Mankind In Its Embrace, As The Protecting Arms Of A Mother Hold Her Infant To Her Bosom. The Very Ignorance And Selfishness Which Obstructs Its Path Are The Strongest Arguments For Its Promotion, For It Furnishes The Only Adequate Means For Their Removal.

The Earth Flourishes, Or Is Overrun With Noxious Weeds And Brambles, As We Apply Or Withhold The Cultivating Hand. So Fares It With The Intellectual System Of Man.

Education Is A Capital To The Poor Man, And An Interest To The Rich Man.

To Know The Machine One Must Know Where Each Part Belongs, And What Its Office Is.

God Draweth Straight Lines But We Call Them Crooked.

Common Sense Is Better Than Genius, And Hence Its Bestowment Is More Universal.

We Conceive Of Immortality As Having A Beginning, But No End; But We Conceive Of Eternity As Having Neither Beginning Nor End. Hence It Is Proper To Speak Of Eternity As The Attribute Of God, But Of Immortality As The Attribute Of Man.

Benevolence Is A World Of Itself -- A World Which Mankind, As Yet, Have Hardly Begun To Explore. We Have, As It Were, Only Skirted Along Its Coasts For A Few Leagues, Without Penetrating The Recesses, Or Gathering The Riches Of Its Vast Interior.

The Object Of Punishment Is, Prevention From Evil; It Never Can Be Made Impulsive To Good.

Let The Common School Be Expanded To Its Capabilities, Let It Be Worked With The Efficiency Of Which It Is Susceptible, And Nine Tenths Of The Crimes In The Penal Code Would Become Obsolete; The Long Catalogue Of Human Ills Would Be Abridged; Men Would Walk More Safely By Day; Every Pillow Would Be More Inviolate By Night; Property, Life, And Character Held By A Stronger Tenure; All Rational Hopes Respecting The Future Brightened.

Knowledge Is But An Instrument, Which The Profligate And The Flagitious May Use As Well As The Brave And The Just.

Patient Perseverance In Well Doing Is Infinitely Harder Than A Sudden And Impulsive Self-sacrifice.

Truths, No Matter How Momentous Or Enduring, Are Nothing To The Individual Until He Appreciates Them, And Feels Their Force, And Acknowledges Their Sovereignty. He Cannot Bow To Their Majesty Until He Sees Their Power. All The Blind Then, And All The Ignorant--that Is, All The Children--must Be Educated Up To The Point Of Perceiving And Admitting The Truth, And Acting According To Its Mandates.

He Who Dethrones The Idea Of Law, Bids Chaos Welcome In Its Stead.

Great Knowledge Is Requisite To Instruct Those Who Have Been Well Instructed, But Still Greater Knowledge Is Requisite To Instruct Those Who Have Been Neglected.

Willmott Has Very Tersely Said That Embellished Truths Are The Illuminated Alphabet Of Larger Children.

If There Is Anything For Which I Would Go Back To Childhood, And Live This Weary Life Over Again, It Is For The Burning, Exalting, Transporting Thrill And Ecstasy With Which The Young Faculties Hold Their Earliest Communion With Knowledge.

To-day Massachusetts; And The Whole Of The American Republic, From The Border Of Maine To The Pacific Slopes, And From The Lakes To The Gulf, Stand Upon The Immutable And Everlasting Principles Of Equal And Exact Justice. The Days Of Unrequited Labor Are Numbered With The Past. Fugitive Slave Laws Are Only Remembered As Relics Of That Barbarism Which John Wesley Pronounced "the Sum Of All Villainies," And Whose Knowledge Of Its Blighting Effects Was Matured By His Travels In Georgia And The Carolinas.

True Glory Is A Flame Lighted At The Skies.

We Are Prone To Seek Immediate Pleasure Or Good, However Small, Rather Than Remote Pleasure Or Good, However Vast.

Scientific Truth Is Marvelous, But Moral Truth Is Divine And Whoever Breathes Its Air And Walks By Its Light Has Found The Lost Paradise.

So Multifarious Are The Different Classes Of Truths, And So Multitudinous The Truths In Each Class, That It May Be Undoubtingly Affirmed That No Man Has Yet Lived Who Could So Much As Name All The Different Classes And Subdivisions Of Truths, And Far Less Anyone Who Was Acquainted With All The Truths Belonging To Any One Class. What Wonderful Extent, What Amazing Variety, What Collective Magnificence! And If Such Be The Number Of Truths Pertaining To This Tiny Ball Of Earth, How Must It Be In The Incomprehensible Immensity!

There Is Not A Good Work Which The Hand Of Man Has Ever Undertaken, Which His Heart Has Ever Conceived, Which Does Not Require A Good Education For Its Helper.

Every Event In This World Is The Effect Of Some Precedent Cause, And Also The Cause Of Some Subsequent Effect.

Seek Not Greatness, But Seek Truth And You Will Find Both.

In Dress, Seek The Middle Between Foppery And Shabbiness.

Love--that Divine Fire Which Was Made To Light And Warm The Temple Of Home--sometimes Burns At Unholy Altars.

The Experience Of The Ages That Are Past, The Hopes Of The Ages That Are Yet To Come, Unite Their Voices In An Appeal To Us;– They Implore Us To Think More Of The Character Of Our People Than Of Its Numbers; To Look Upon Our Vast Natural Resources, Not As Tempters To Ostentation And Pride, But As Means To Be Converted By The Refining Alchemy Of Education Into Mental And Spiritual Treasures; ...and Thus Give To The World The Example Of A Nation Whose Wisdom Increases With Its Prosperity, And Whose Virtues Are Equal To Its Power.

Love Must Be The Same In All Worlds.

Want Of Occupation Is The Bane Of Both Men And Women, Perhaps More Especially Of The Latter.

If Ever There Was A Cause, If Ever There Can Be A Cause, Worthy To Be Upheld By All Of Toil Or Sacrifice That The Human Heart Can Endure, It Is The Cause Of Education.

Praise Begets Emulation,--a Goodly Seed To Sow Among Youthful Students.

Reproof Is A Medicine, Like Mercury Or Opium; If It Be Improperly Administered, It Will Do Harm Instead Of Good.

We Go By The Major Vote, And If The Majority Are Insane, The Sane Must Go To The Hospital.

Of All "rights" Which Command Attention At The Present Time Among Us, Woman's Rights Seem To Take Precedence.

The Soul Of The Truly Benevolent Man Does Not Seem To Reside Much In His Own Body. Its Life, To A Great Extent, Is A Mere Reflex Of The Lives Of Others. It Migrates Into Their Bodies, And Identifying Its Existence With Their Existence, Finds Its Own Happiness In Increasing And Prolonging Their Pleasures, In Extinguishing Or Solacing Their Pains.

A Teacher Who Is Attempting To Teach Without Inspiring The Pupil With A Desire To Learn Is Hammering On Cold Iron.

The Earth Endured Christ's Ministry Only Three Years;--not Three Weeks After His Real Character And Purposes Were Generally Known.

It Is Well, When The Wise And The Learned Discover New Truths; But How Much Better To Diffuse The Truths Already Discovered, Amongst The Multitude! Every Addition To True Knowledge Is An Addition To Human Power; And While A Philosopher Is Discovering One New Truth, Millions May Be Propagated Amongst The People. Diffusion, Then, Rather Than Discovery, Is The Duty Of Our Government.

As An Innovation... The Establishment Of Free Schools Was The Boldest Ever Promulgated, Since The Commencement Of The Christian Era... Time Has Ratified Its Soundness. Two Centuries Proclaim It To Be As Wise As It Was Courageous, As Beneficient As It Was Disinterested. It Was One Of Those Grand Mental And Moral Experiments... The Sincerity Of Our Gratitude Must Be Tested By Our Efforts To Perpetuate And Improve What They Established. The Gratitude Of The Lips Only Is An Unholy Offering.

Bodies Are Cleansed By Water; The Mind Is Purified By Truth.

As All Truth Is From God, It Necessarily Follows That True Science And True Religion Can Never Be At Variance.

A House Without Books Is Like A Room Without Windows. No Man Has A Right To Bring Up His Children Without Surrounding Them With Books, If He Has The Means To Buy Them. It Is A Wrong To His Family. He Cheats Them! Children Learn To Read By Being In The Presence Of Books. The Love Of Knowledge Comes With Reading And Grows Upon It.

Avoid Witticisms At The Expense Of Others.

Great Books Are Written For Christianity Much Oftener Than Great Deeds Are Done For It. City Libraries Tell Us Of The Reign Of Jesus Christ But City Streets Tell Us Of The Reign Of Satan.

Ignorance Has Been Well Represented Under The Similitude Of A Dungeon, Where, Though It Is Full Of Life, Yet Darkness And Silence Reign. But In Society The Bars And Locks Have Been Broken; The Dungeon Itself Is Demolished; The Prisoners Are Out; They Are In The Midst Of Us. We Have No Security But To Teach And Renovate Them.

Habit Is A Cable; We Weave A Thread Of It Each Day, And At Last We Cannot Break It.

Just In Proportion As A Man Becomes Good, Divine, Christ-like, He Passes Out Of The Region Of Theorizing, Of System-building, And Hireling Service, Into The Region Of Beneficent Activities. It Is Well To Think Well. It Is Divine To Act Well.

After A Child Has Arrived At The Legal Age For Attending School,-whether He Be The Child Of Noble Or Of Peasant,-the Only Two Absolute Grounds Of Exemption From Attendance Are Sickness And Death.

When You Introduce Into Our Schools A Spirit Of Emulation, You Have Present The Keenest Spur Admissible To The Youthful Intellect.

We Who Are Engaged In The Sacred Cause Of Education Are Entitled To Look Upon All Parents As Having Given Hostages To Our Cause.

The Devil Tempts Men Through Their Ambition, Their Cupidity, Or Their Appetite, Until He Comes To The Profane Swearer, Whom He Clutches Without Any Reward.

Spurn Not At Seeming Error, But Dig Below Its Surface For The Truth; And Beware Of Seeming Truths That Grow On The Roots Of Error.

There Is Nothing Derogatory In Any Employment Which Ministers To The Well-being Of The Race. It Is The Spirit That Is Carried Into An Employment That Elevates Or Degrades It.

The Chinese Have An Excellent Proverb: "be Modest In Speech, But Excel In Action.

Biography, Especially Of The Great And Good, Who Have Risen By Their Own Exertions To Eminence And Usefulness, Is An Inspiring And Ennobling Study. Its Direct Tendency Is To Reproduce The Excellence It Records.

Give Me A House Furnished With Books Rather Than Furniture! Both, If You Can, But Books At Any Rate!

Resistance To Improvement Contradicts The Noblest Instincts Of The Race. It Begets Its Opposite. The Fanaticism Of Reform Is Only The Raging Of The Accumulated Waters Caused By The Obstructions Which An Ultra Conservatism Has Thrown Across The Stream Of Progress; And Revolution Itself Is But The Sudden Overwhelming And Sweeping Away Of Impediments That Should Have Been Seasonably Removed.

The Most Precious Wine Is Produced Upon The Sides Of Volcanoes. Now Bold And Inspiring Ideals Are Only Born Of A Clear Head That Stands Over A Glowing Heart.

If Evil Is Inevitable, How Are The Wicked Accountable? Nay, Why Do We Call Men Wicked At All? Evil Is Inevitable, But Is Also Remediable.

It Is Far More Difficult, I Assure You, To Live For The Truth Than To Die For It.

Every Addition To True Knowledge Is An Addition To Human Power.

Thank Heaven, The Female Heart Is Untenantable By Atheism.

Under The Providence Of God, Our Means Of Education Are The Grand Machinery By Which The 'raw Material' Of Human Nature Can Be Worked Up Into Inventors And Discoverers, Into Skilled Artisans And Scientific Farmers, Into Scholars And Jurists, Into The Founders Of Benevolent Institutions, And The Great Expounders Of Ethical And Theological Science.

Lost, Yesterday, Somewhere Between Sunrise And Sunset, Two Golden Hours, Each Set With Sixty Diamond Minutes. No Reward Is Offered For They Are Gone Forever.

When A Child Can Be Brought To Tears, Not From Fear Of Punishment, But From Repentance For His Offence, He Needs No Chastisement. When The Tears Begin To Flow From Grief At One's Own Conduct, Be Sure There Is An Angel Nestling In The Bosom.

Doing Nothing For Others Is The Undoing Of One's Self. We Must Be Purposely Kind And Generous, Or We Miss The Best Part Of Existence. The Heart That Goes Out Of Itself, Gets Large And Full Of Joy. This Is The Great Secret Of The Inner Life. We Do Ourselves The Most Good Doing Something For Others.

Those Who Exert The First Influence Upon The Mind Have The Greatest Power.

In Trying To Teach Children A Great Deal In A Short Time, They Are Treated Not As Though The Race They Were To Run Was For Life, But Simply A Three-mile Heat.

But Let A Man Know That There Are Things To Be Known, Of Which He Is Ignorant, And It Is So Much Carved Out Of His Domain Of Universal Knowledge.

Knowledge Is A Mimic Creation.

Let But The Public Mind Become Once Thoroughly Corrupt, And All Attempts To Secure Property, Liberty Or Life, By Mere Force Of Laws Written On Parchment, Will Be As Vain As To Put Up Printed Notices In An Orchard To Keep Off The Canker-worms.

Doing Nothing For Others Is The Undoing Of Ourselves.

Help And Support

Ten Men Have Failed From Defect In Morals, Where One Has Failed From Defect In Intellect.

Do Not Think Of Knocking Out Another Person's Brains Because He Differs In Opinion From You. It Would Be As Rational To Knock Yourself On The Head Because You Differ From Yourself Ten Years Ago.

Habit Can Overcome Anything But Instinct, And Can Greatly Modify Even That.

Jails And Prisons Are The Complement Of Schools; So Many Less As You Have Of The Latter, So Many More Must You Have Of The Former.

Good Books Are To The Young Mind What The Warming Sun And The Refreshing Rain Of Spring Are To The Seeds Which Have Lain Dormant In The Frosts Of Winter. They Are More, For They May Save From That Which Is Worse Than Death, As Well As Bless With That Which Is Better Than Life.

The Living Soul Of Man, Once Conscious Of Its Power, Cannot Be Quelled.

In What Pagan Nation Was Moloch Ever Propitiated By Such An Unbroken And Swift-moving Procession Of Victims As Are Offered To This Moloch Of Christendom, Intemperance.

Whatever Statesman Or Sage Will Effect Reforms Upon A Gigantic Or Godlike Scale Must Begin With The Young.

When Will Society, Like A Mother, Take Care Of All Her Children?

You May Be Liberal In Your Praise Where Praise Is Due: It Costs Nothing; It Encourages Much.

Every School Boy And School Girl Who Has Arrived At The Age Of Reflection Ought To Know Something About The History Of The Art Of Printing.

In Our Country And In Our Times No Man Is Worthy The Honored Name Of Statesman Who Does Not Include The Highest Practicable Education Of The People In All His Plans Of Administration. He May Have Eloquence, He May Have A Knowledge Of All History, Diplomacy, Jurisprudence; And By These He Might Claim, In Other Countries, The Elevated Rank Of A Statesman: But Unless He Speaks, Plans, Labors, At All Times And In All Places, For The Culture And Edification Of The Whole People, He Is Not, He Cannot Be, An American Statesman.

Let Us Labor For That Larger Comprehension Of Truth, And That More Thorough Repudiation Of Error, Which Shall Make The History Of Mankind A Series Of Ascending Developments.

Education Is Our Only Political Safety. Outside Of This Ark All Is Deluge.

No Combatants Are So Unequally Matched As When One Is Shackled With Error, While The Other Rejoices In The Self-demonstrability Of Truth.

It Is Well To Think Well; It Is Divine To Act Well.

He Who Cannot Resist Temptation Is Not A Man. Whoever Yields To Temptation Debases Himself With A Debasement From Which He Can Never Arise.

Be Ashamed To Die Until You Have Won Some Victory For Humanity.

The Most Formidable Attribute Of Temptation Is Its Increasing Power, Its Accelerating Ratio Of Velocity. Every Act Of Repetition Increases Power, Diminishes Resistance. It Is Like The Letting Out Of Waters-where A Drop Can Go, A River Can Go. Whoever Yields To Temptation, Subjects Himself To The Law Of Falling Bodies.

Let Us Not Be Content To Wait And See What Will Happen, But Give Us The Determination To Make The Right Things Happen.

As Each Generation Comes Into The World Devoid Of Knowledge, Its First Duty Is To Obtain Possession Of The Stores Already Amassed. It Must Overtake Its Predecessors Before It Can Pass By Them.

An Ignorant Man Is Always Able To Say Yes Or No Immediately To Any Proposition. To A Wise Man, Comparatively Few Things Can Be Propounded Which Do Not Require A Response With Qualifications, With Discriminations, With Proportion.

Without Undervaluing Any Other Human Agency, It May Be Safely Affirmed That The Common School, Improved And Energized, As It Can Easily Be, May Become The Most Effective And Benignant Of All The Forces Of Civilization. Two Reasons Sustain This Position. In The First Place, There Is A Universality In Its Operation, Which Can Be Affirmed Of No Other Institution Whatever... And, In The Second Place, The Materials Upon Which It Operates Are So Pliant And Ductile As To Be Susceptible Of Assuming A Greater Variety Of Forms Than Any Other Earthly Work Of The Creator.

If Temperance Prevails, Then Education Can Prevail; If Temperance Fails, Then Education Must Fail.

Temptation Is A Fearful Word. It Indicates The Beginning Of A Possible Series Of Infinite Evils. It Is The Ringing Of An Alarm Bell, Whose Melancholy Sounds May Reverberate Through Eternity. Like The Sudden, Sharp Cry Of "fire!" Under Our Windows By Night, It Should Rouse Us To Instantaneous Action, And Brace Every Muscle To Its Highest Tension.

Ideality Is The Avant-courier Of The Mind.

We Must Be Purposely Kind And Generous Or We Miss The Best Part Of Life's Existence.

Ignorance Breeds Monsters To Fill Up The Vacancies Of The Soul That Are Unoccupied By The Verities Of Knowledge.

He Who Cannot Resist Temptation Is Not A Man.

Temptation Life

Resolve To Edge In A Little Reading Every Day, If It Is But A Single Sentence. If You Gain Fifteen Minutes A Day, It Will Make Itself Felt At The End Of The Year.

Deeds Survive The Doers.

A Republican Form Of Government, Without Intelligence In The People, Must Be, On A Vast Scale, What A Mad-house, Without Superintendent Or Keepers, Would Be On A Small One.

The Pulpit Only "teaches" To Be Honest; The Market-place "trains" To Overreaching And Fraud; And Teaching Has Not A Tithe Of The Efficiency Of Training. Christ Never Wrote A Tract, But He Went About Doing Good.

Even The Choicest Literature Should Be Taken As The Condiment, And Not As The Sustenance Of Life. It Should Be Neither The Warp Nor The Woof Of Existence, But Only The Flowery Edging Upon Its Borders.

New Constellations Of Truth Are Daily Discovered In The Firmament Of Knowledge, And New Stars Are Daily Shining Forth In Each Constellation.

Schoolhouses Are The Republican Line Of Fortifications.

Under The Sublime Law Of Progress, The Present Outgrows The Past. The Great Heart Of Humanity Is Heaving With The Hopes Of A Brighter Day. All The Higher Instincts Of Our Nature Prophesy Its Approach; And The Best Intellects Of The Race Are Struggling To Turn That Prophecy Into Fulfilment.

It Would Be More Honourable To Our Distinguished Ancestors To Praise Them In Words Less, But In Deeds To Imitate Them More.

Teaching Isn't One-tenth As Effective As Training.

One Thing I Certainly Never Was Made For, And That Is To Put Principles On And Off At The Dictation Of A Party, As A Lackey Changes His Livery At His Master's Command.

We Put Things In Order - God Does The Rest. Lay An Iron Bar East And West, It Is Not Magnetized. Lay It North And South And It Is.

Education Must Bring The Practice As Nearly As Possible To The Theory. As The Children Now Are, So Will The Sovereigns Soon Be.

Education Alone Can Conduct Us To That Enjoyment Which Is, At Once, Best In Quality And Infinite In Quantity.

Virtue Is An Angel, But She Is A Blind One, And Must Ask Knowledge To Show Her The Pathway That Leads To Her Goal.

There Is Nothing So Costly As Ignorance.

A House Without Books Is Like A Room Without Windows.

On The Face Of It, It Must Be A Bad Cause Which Will Not Bear Discussion. Truth Seeks Light Instead Of Shunning It.

Man Is Improvable. Some People Think He Is Only A Machine, And That The Only Difference Between A Man And A Mill Is, That One Is Carried By Blood And The Other By Water.

Manners Easily And Rapidly Mature Into Morals.

A Teacher Should, Above All Things, First Induce A Desire In The Pupil For The Acquisition He Wishes To Impart.

Teachers Teach Because They Care. Teaching Young People Is What They Do Best. It Requires Long Hours, Patience, And Care.

Forts, Arsenals, Garrisons, Armies, Navies, Are Means Of Security And Defence, Which Were Invented In Half-civilized Times And In Feudal Or Despotic Countries; But Schoolhouses Are The Republican Line Of Fortifications, And If They Are Dismantled And Dilapidated, Ignorance And Vice Will Pour In Their Legions Through Every Breach.

Genius May Conceive But Patient Labor Must Consummate.

You Need Not Tell All The Truth, Unless To Those Who Have A Right To Know It; But Let All You Tell Be Truth.

Injustice Alone Can Shake Down The Pillars Of The Skies, And Restore The Reign Of Chaos And Night.

A Human Being Is Not Attaining His Full Heights Until He Is Educated.

Republics, One After Another . . . Have Perished From A Want Of Intelligence And Virtue In The Masses Of The People. . . .

Be Careful Never To Retire To Rest In A Room Not Properly Ventilated.

Both Poetry And Philosophy Are Prodigal Of Eulogy Over The Mind Which Ransoms Itself By Its Own Energy From A Captivity To Custom, Which Breaks The Common Bounds Of Empire, And Cuts A Simplon Over Mountains Of Difficulty For Its Own Purposes, Whether Of Good Or Of Evil.

False Conclusions Which Have Been Reasoned Out Are Infinitely Worse Than Blind Impulse.

Finally, In Regard To Those Who Possess The Largest Shares In The Stock Of Worldly Goods, Could There, In Your Opinion, Be Any Police So Vigilant And Effetive, For The Protections Of All The Rights Of Person, Property And Character, As Such A Sound And Comprehensive Education And Training, As Our System Of Common Schools Could Be Made To Impart; And Would Not The Payment Of A Sufficient Tax To Make Such Education And Training Universal, Be The Cheapest Means Of Self-protection And Insurance?

So, In The Infinitely Nobler Battle In Which You Are Engaged Against Error And Wrong, If Ever Repulsed Or Stricken Down, May You Always Be Solaced And Cheered By The Exulting Cry Of Triumph Over Some Abuse In Church Or State, Some Vice Or Folly In Society, Some False Opinion Or Cruelty Or Guilt Which You Have Overcome! And I Beseech You To Treasure Up In Your Hearts These My Parting Words: Be Ashamed To Die Until You Have Won Some Victory For Humanity.

No Error Is Infused Into The Young Mind, To Lie There Dormant, Or To Be Reproduced Only When The Subject Of Thought Or Action Recurs To Which The Error Belongs; But The Error Becomes A Model Or Archetype, After Whose Likeness The Active Powers Of The Mind Create A Thousand Other Errors.

We Do Ourselves The Most Good Doing Something For Others.

I Look Upon Phrenology As The Guide To Philosophy And The Handmaid Of Christianity. Whoever Disseminates True Phrenology Is A Public Benefactor.

If You Wish To Write Well, Study The Life About You,--life In The Public Streets.

If An Idiot Were To Tell You The Same Story Every Day For A Year, You Would End By Believing It.

Education Is An Organic Necessity Of A Human Being.

Knowledge Has Its Boundary Line, Where It Abuts On Ignorance; On The Outside Of That Boundary Line Are Ignorance And Miracles; On The Inside Of It Are Science And No Miracles.

The False Man Is More False To Himself Than To Any One Else. He May Despoil Others, But Himself Is The Chief Loser. The World's Scorn He Might Sometimes Forget, But The Knowledge Of His Own Perfidy Is Undying.

In Vain Do They Talk Of Happiness Who Never Subdued An Impulse In Obedience To A Principle. He Who Never Sacrificed A Present To A Future Good, Or A Personal To A General One, Can Speak Of Happiness Only As The Blind Speak Of Color.

Enslave A Man And You Destroy His Ambition, His Enterprise, His Capacity. In The Constitution Of Human Nature, The Desire Of Bettering One's Condition Is The Mainspring Of Effort. The First Touch Of Slavery Snaps This Spring.

Keep One Thing In View Forever- The Truth; And If You Do This, Though It May Seem To Lead You Away From The Opinion Of Men, It Will Assuredly Conduct You To The Throne Of God.

You May As Well Borrow A Person's Money As His Time.

If You Can Express Yourself So As To Be Perfectly Understood In Ten Words, Never Use A Dozen.

Express Yourself

Unfaithfulness In The Keeping Of An Appointment Is An Act Of Clear Dishonesty. You May As Well Borrow A Person's Money As His Time.

When The Panting And Thirsting Soul First Drinks The Delicious Waters Of Truth, When The Moral And Intellectual Tastes And Desires First Seize The Fragrant Fruits That Flourish In The Garden Of Knowledge, Then Does The Child Catch A Glimpse And Foretaste Of Heaven.

Some Languages Are Musical In Themselves, So That It Is Pleasant To Hear Any One Read Or Converse In Them, Even Though We Do Not Understand A Word That We Hear.... Others Are Full Of Growling, Snarling, Hissing Sounds, As Though Wild Beasts And Serpents Had First Taught The People To Speak.

There May Be Frugality Which Is Not Economy. A Community, That Withholds The Means Of Education From Its Children, Withholds The Bread Of Life And Starves Their Souls.

Every Hand And Every Hour Should Be Devoted To Rescue The World From Its Insanity Of Guilt, And To Assuage The Pangs Of Human Hearts With Balm And Anodyne. To Pity Distress Is But Human; To Relieve It Is Godlike.

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.

Time Is A Seedfield; In Youth We Sow It With Causes; In After Life We Reap The Harvest Of Effects.

Much That We Call Evil Is Really Good In Disguises; And We Should Not Quarrel Rashly With Adversities Not Yet Understood, Nor Overlook The Mercies Often Bound Up In Them.

It Is More Difficult, And It Calls For Higher Energies Of Soul, To Live A Martyr Than To Die One.

School Is The Cheapest Police.

As An Apple Is Not In Any Proper Sense An Apple Until It Is Ripe, So A Human Being Is Not In Any Proper Sense A Human Being Until He Is Educated.

Manners Are The Root, Laws Only The Trunk And Branches. Manners Are The Archetypes Of Laws. Manners Are Laws In Their Infancy; Laws Are Manners Fully Grown,--or, Manners Are Children, Which, When They Grow Up, Become Laws.

Generosity During Life Is A Very Different Thing From Generosity In The Hour Of Death; One Proceeds From Genuine Liberality And Benevolence, The Other From Pride Or Fear.

On Entering This World Our Starting-point Is Ignorance. None, However, But Idiots Remain There.

Trending Author

David O. Russell

Augusten Burroughs

Category