
Letter to M.V. Kiseleva (January 14, 1887
Letters
As quoted in "The Transylvania Journey" by Rev. Michael McGee (25 July 2004), and in Whose God? and Three Related Works (2007) by Benjamin C. Godfrey, p. 61
Letter to M.V. Kiseleva (January 14, 1887
Letters
Education (1902)
Context: I am not of those who believe in lackadaisical methods. On the contrary, I advocate a vigorous, thorough, exact mental training which shall fit the mind to expand upon and grasp large things and yet properly to perceive in their just relation the significance of small ones to discriminate accurately as to quantity and quality and thus to develop individual judgment, capacity and independence.
But at the same time I am of those who believe that gentleness is a greater, surer power than force, and that sympathy is a safer power by far than is intellect. Therefore would I train the individual sympathies as carefully in all their delicate warmth and tenuity as I would develop the mind in alertness, poise and security.
Nor am I of those who despise dreamers. For the world would be at the level of zero were it not for its dreamers gone and of today. He who dreamed of democracy, far back in a world of absolutism, was indeed heroic, and we of today awaken to the wonder of his dream.
Isaac D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature.
Misattributed, Isaac D'Israeli
Inspirations : Meditations from The Artist's Way (2001), "Invocation"
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 156.
“The only thing greater than the power of the mind is the courage of the heart”
Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.49, [ellipsis added]