The quote database

It is not always recognized that the work itself is a great educator, and that acute cleverness in the line of work to which he is fitted comes to the worker.

You must make up your mind to steady and earnest work. You must be content to get on slowly if you only get on thoroughly.

We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.

The fundamental principle of scientific pedagogy must be, indeed, the liberty of the pupil;--such liberty as shall permit a development of individual, spontaneous manifestations of the child's nature.

Look back on these forebodings, not hastily but reluctantly made, and see how in every instance they have completely failed.

And yet, in spite of the opposition encountered, and the obstacles opposed to their acquisition of knowledge and their accumulation of property, the progress made by colored women along these lines has never been surpassed by that of any people in the history of the world.

There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy, than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.

Give us labour and the training which fits for labour! We demand this, not for ourselves alone, but for the race.

All sincere and earnest search after truth, even where it fails to reach it, yet, often comes so near to it, that other minds more happily situated may be led, by pointing out its very limitations and errors, to obtain a larger view.

The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another--until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

the true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing

To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.

Such biographies increase a man's self-reliance by demonstrating what men can be, and what they can do; fortifying his hopes and elevating his aims in life.

The goal of mankind is knowledge. That is the one ideal placed before us by Eastern philosophy.

Every thought we think makes it necessary for us to think another thought; consciousness is continually expanding.

Every fact we learn leads us to the learning of another fact; knowledge is continually increasing.

Two heads are better than one.

Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be.

When the interests of mankind are at stake, they will obey with joy the man whom they believe to be wiser than themselves.