Quotes about education

A collection of quotes on the topic of education, people, use, doing.

Best quotes about education

“Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education.”

Zhuangzi (-369–-286 BC) classic Chinese philosopher

“The roots of education … are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Variant: Never let your schooling interfere with your education.

“Only the educated are free.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

Discourses
Variant: ...none ought to be educated but the free;...
Book II, ch. 1.

“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.”

Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general in the Civil War

As quoted in Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 175

“Education doesn't make you smarter.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

“The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Quoted in "Books: The Great Gadfly", Time magazine, 8 October 1965 (review of The Age of Voltaire by Will and Ariel Durant)
Context: Sixty years ago I knew everything. Now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

“Marriage can wait, education cannot.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns

“Education is no substitute for intelligence.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

Quotes about education

“Without underestimating the virtues of technical, specialized and necessary education, we cannot accept an education that eliminates the other dimension of human knowledge, that which motivates us to be more cultured, more human, deeper, more emotional.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Perú Informa. Interview. https://www.peruinforma.com/entrevista-cultural-al-escritor-chileno-jose-baroja/

Motivation, Knowledge

“To achieve this, we have to distinctively promote continuing and lifelong education, the form of education which is responsive to individual needs and preferences. With educational facilities and a variety of educational programs available, people can make use of the learning centre as a place to acquire technical skills or knowledge adaptive to their work and daily life activities.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001221/122102Eo.pdf Page53-56
Education for All People and Education for Life

Life, People, Knowledge, Learning

“Education, therefore, has to be organized in such a way that people from all walks of life can participate in educational activities at levels and times of their preference.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Education for All People and Education for Life

Life, People, Way, Time

“The objective of education reform is to creat learning individual, organization, and society. An educated person or the authentic learning outcome should possess the following abilities and characteristics which are based on Thai cultural heritage and appropriate level of education: good physical and mental health, critical thinking, intellectual inquisitiveness, professionalism, sense of responsibility, honesty, selfsacrifice, perseverance, team spirit, adherence to democracy, and love for King, Country and Religion.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

The Reason and the objective of Education Reform

Love, Health, Religion, Democracy

“With regard to the learning society, as I mentioned earlier, optimistically, people from all walks of life should be able to have equal access to education according to their needs and potentials.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Education for All People and Education for Life

Life, People, Learning

“The goal of the education reform is to realize the potential of Thai people to develop themselves for a better quality of life and to develop the national into peaceful co-existence in the global community.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jcrdaen/1/1/1_KJ00006742072/_pdf
Education for Peace

Life, People, Peace, Communication

“and should be entitled to have access to education according to their competency and needs.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Education for All People and Education for Life

“We cannot deny that people who know more about the educational needs of local people are those who work and live within that community.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

All for Education
Source: :http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001221/122102Eo.pdf Page53-56

People, Communication

“Economic, social, political, environmental and population development in Thailand have created a series of problems that must be addressed addressesed by education.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

The Reason and the objective of Education Reform

Problem

“It is essential that the government provide educational services that respond to the people’s needs”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Education for All People and Education for Life

People

“At the very beginning, the crucial element to be considered for education reform is the management system. The administrative power, in particular, has to be shifted to local authorities, and local participation in the school management is essentially encouraged.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

All for Education

School

“Current school education in the United States is so bad that the only thing they got in 2025 was a bad Trump.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Radiorama de Occidente. 1480 AM Rock&Pop.

School

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

Heart, Wise, Graduation

“Education is simply the act of gaining knowledge. Nothing to do with school.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

School, Knowledge

“It's all true that education will make you intelligent. But it can't automatically make you a good person too.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Intelligence, Personality

“If you are emotionally attached to your tribe, religion or political leaning to the point that truth and justice become secondary considerations, your education and exposure is useless. If you cannot reason beyond petty sentiments, you are a liability.”

Chuba Okadigbo (1941–2003) Nigerian politician

Source: Fani-Kayode urges Buhari to take Okadigbo’s advice, Ifreke Inyang, 23 October 2017, Daily Post, Nigeria, 18 April 2018 http://dailypost.ng/2017/10/23/fani-kayode-urges-buhari-take-okadigbos-advice/,

Truth, Religion, Justice

“Education is the result of self-learning, being taught by one or more people. Learning is the key word here. Schools, colleges and universities only divide you into CLASSES according to your level of understanding.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People, School, Understanding, Learning

“Teachers also say that teaching for learning how-to-learn-learn will consume a lot of time. It will be difficult to cover all the content specified by the curriculum if learning uses up too much time on hands-on activities. The less-is-more alternative has not been considered as a possible solution at all in educational reforms where only expanding will bring about progress and development is more. Now is an appropriate time for educators to come down to the heart of educational matters or the learning methods to achieve the less-is-more alternative in all educational reforms.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Teacher

Learning, Teachers, Time, Heart

“We must, at once re-educate the next generation not to fall prey to this lowly level of thinking. Thus, making them strong enough to survive the next episode of life.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Life, Thinking, Strong

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stonewritten. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

"The Meaning of Life: The Big Picture", Life Magazine (December 1988)
Interviews

Love, Death, God, War

“Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.”

Aristophanés (-448–-386 BC) Athenian playwright of Old Comedy

Fictional attribution in the movie The Emperor's Club (2002), given by Kevin Kline (as William Hundert); also attributed to Diogenes, without sources; no published occurrences of this statement prior to the movie have been located in any of the Aristophanes Plays or Fragments. Misattributed Source: IMDb, "Memorable quotes for The Emperor's Club" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283530/quotes, Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com Source: Two pages attributing it to Diogenes: http://www.prohibitionists.org/Background/Party_Platform/quickquotes/QQ-education.htm http://www.ryanbalton.com/funstuff/forb_seniorquotes.htm

Youth, Age, Stupidity

“The kind of education we are looking for, it is necessary that teachers have to walk through this learning process and then practise them later on in their teaching. Professionalism can be achieved by teachers if they practise learning in their teaching.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Teacher

Learning, Teachers

“The speedily changing world and the growth in business and industrial enterprises have led to greater demand of semi-skilled manpower, who need a higher level of education in order to perform their tasks at the adequate level. To keep up with the speedy change, the educational system can no longer take a passive role.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Education helps reduce social problems and improves quality of life

World, Business, Change

“The real struggle is not between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and propaganda.”

Martin Buber (1878–1965) German Jewish Existentialist philosopher and theologian

As quoted in Encounter with Martin Buber (1972) by Aubrey Hodes, p. 135

Communication

“To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Personality

“Whoever wants to be a leader should educate himself before educating others. Before preaching to others he should first practice himself. Whoever educates himself and improves his own morals is superior to the man who tries to teach and train others.”

Ali book Nahj al-Balagha

Nahj al-Balagha

Training

“The provision of education has to be congruent with the pace of the changing world. This era - the era of globalization where all sources of information can be accessed within a few seconds through Internet and World-Wide-Web linkages, we inevitably have to take a further step beyond literacy level.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Education helps reduce social problems and improves quality of life

World, Change

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

Aristotle book Metaphysics

Attributed to Aristotle in Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth http://books.google.gr/books?id=2HPUAAAAMAAJ&q=, Deseret Book Company, 1959, p. 52, and in American Opinion, Volume 24 http://books.google.gr/books?id=irofAQAAMAAJ&q=, Robert Welch, Inc., 1981, p. 23. Possibly a discombobulation http://publicnoises.blogspot.fi/2009/02/aristotle-and-accuracy.html of the Nicomachean Ethics Book I, 1094b.24 quote above. Disputed Source: Metaphysics

Wise, Graduation

“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.”

Carl R. Rogers (1902–1987) American psychologist

Learning, Change, Personality

“I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics ever since.”

Robert Downey Jr. (1965) American actor

Quoted in David Carr, "Been Up, Been Down. Now? Super." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/movies/20carr.html?_r=4&pagewanted=2&8dpc&oref=slogin&, New York Times (2008-04-20)

Understanding, Night

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer

This is a paraphrase of an idea that Dewey expressed using other words in My Pedagogic Creed (1897) and Democracy and Education (1916); it is widely misattributed to Dewey as a quotation.
Cf. James William Norman, A Comparison of Tendencies in Secondary Education in England and the United States (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1922), [//books.google.com/books?id=qrmgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA140 p. 140] (emphasis added): "...there has for years been a strong and growing tendency in the United States under the leadership of Dewey, and more recently of Kilpatrick, to find an educational method correlative of democracy in society with the belief that education is life itself rather than a mere preparation for life, and that practice in democratic living is the best preparation for democracy."
Misattributed
Variant: Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.

Life, Courageous, Graduation, Teachers' Day

“Education is the sum of what students teach each other between lectures and seminars.”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

Variant: Education is the sum of what students teach each other between lectures and seminars.

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Speech at Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (28 June 1964), as quoted in By Any Means Necessary (1970)
By any means necessary: speeches, interviews, and a letter (1970)
Variant: The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Source: Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers' Power
Context: Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights. It is the means to help our children and our people rediscover their identity and thereby increase their self respect. Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.

People, Future, Graduation

“Education is perceived as a crucial instrument for increasing productivity and income, skills, competency of human resources, and sustainable growth. In the end, education helps reduce social problems, and improves quality of life so that people can live equally with others in society.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Education helps reduce social problems and improves quality of life

Life, People, Problem, Help

“The secret of sound education is to get each pupil to learn for himself, instead of instructing him by driving knowledge into him on a stereotyped system.”

Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement

The Scouter http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/outlook.html (January, 1912)

Secret, Knowledge, Learning

“Shall we educate ourselves in what is known, and then casting away all we have acquired, turn to ignorance for aid to guide us among the unknown?”

Michael Faraday (1791–1867) English scientist

“Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Source: His Last Bow: 8 Stories

“Worldview" is not based on books; it is an internal form, which at times in a person with little education is expressed much more brightly, than in some other "intellectual" or scientist.”

Julius Evola (1898–1974) Italian philosopher and esotericist

Books, Time, Personality

“The task of a truly revolutionary party is not to declare that it is impossible to renounce all compromises, but to be able, through all compromises, when they are unavoidable, to remain true to its principles, to its class, to its revolutionary purpose, to its task of paving the way for revolution and educating the mass of the people for victory in the revolution.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

People, Way, Victory

“The function of a child is to live his/her own life, not the life that his/her anxious parents think he/she should live, nor a life according to the purpose of the educators who thinks they knows best”

A.S. Neill (1883–1973) Scottish educator and theorist

Life, Thinking, Parent

“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

Life, Children, Art, Cute

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.”

Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician

War, Peace, Peaceful

“The child is truly a miraculous being, and this should be felt deeply by the educator.”

Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician

Part II : How Language Calls to the Child, p. 121
The Absorbent Mind (1949)

“Sex education is the only subject that will arouse the mind without illuminating it.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Sex

“One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.”

William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospi…

Source: Sir William Osler : Aphorisms (1961), p. 105.

“Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Children, For Parents

“This knotted dilemma lies at the center of women's development. How can girls both enter and stay outside of, be educated in and then try to change, what for millennia has been a man's world?”

Carol Gilligan (1936) American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist

Source: Joining the Resistance

Women, World, Girl, Change

“I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living.”

John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor

People, World, Thinking

“Not all men (and especially the wisest) share the opinion that it is bad for women to be educated. But it is very true that many foolish men have claimed this because it displeased them that women knew more than they did.”

Christine de Pizan book The Book of the City of Ladies

Source: The Book of the City of Ladies

Women, Men

“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Variant: Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.

Intelligence, Graduation, Teachers' Day

“Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists‎ (2007) by James Geary

Men, Children

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

Light, Powerful, Teachers' Day, For Parents

“Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking. I never had any formal education—not even a nursery school certificate. But sometimes I know more than Ph. D. s because as a military man I know how to act. I am a man of action.”

Idi Amin (1925–2003) third president of Uganda

Appears in Barbet Schroeder (1974), General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait.

People, School, Way, Thinking

“(on the perceived need for cautious political development): "We are the High Chiefs of these islands. We are the leaders of the people. On us is the duty of pointing out to them the right course. Bear this in mind. We have to lead on two points- hold back those who advocate radical changes (for which we are not sufficiently educated) and enliven the laggards before their ignorance destroys us."”

Lala Sukuna (1888–1958) Chief of Lau and civil servant in Fiji

1936 speeches to the Great Council of Chiefs

People, Change

“The aim of a student’s life should be to overcome any illusions or prejudices he may have and to give up mean habits. He should, and it is his duty to, propagate education among his illiterate brothers and to consider the propagation of education as part of his own education. He ought to acquire knowledge for the sake of knowledge and he should not be unaware of the needs of life.”

Zakir Hussain (politician) (1897–1969) 3rd President of India

In his first school essay, while in Class VIII, expressing his ideas and ideals, in: p. 28.
Quest for Truth (1999)

Life, Knowledge, Parting

“The people are starving. They need food; they need medicine; they need education. They do not need a skyscraper to house the ruling party and a 24-hour TV station.”

Wangari Maathai (1940–2011) Kenyan environmental and political activist

On her opposition to the construction of a skyscraper in Nairobi, Kenya, as quoted in the article Wangari Maathai:"You Strike The Woman ..." by Priscilla Sears in the quarterly In Context #28 (Spring 1991)

People, Food, Housing

“That which the educator must seek is to be able to see the child as Jesus saw him.”

Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician

The Secret of Childhood, p. 108.
Context: We have in ourselves tendencies that are not good and which flourish like weeds in a field. (Original sin). These tendencies are many; they fall into seven groups, known of old as the Seven deadly sins. All deadly sins tend to separate us from the child; for the child compared to us, is not only purer but has mysterious qualities, which we adults as a rule cannot perceive, but in which we must believe with faith, for Jesus spoke to them so clearly and insistently that all the Evangelists recorded His words: Unless ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall nor enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. That which the educator must seek is to be able to see the child as Jesus saw him. It is with this endeavour, thus defined and delimited, that we wish to deal.

“If education is truly the key. Then let's all of us become socialists and struggle to make it free to all, instead of making it expensive daily.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Our educational system is filled with the art of memorisation, how much you can recall in the exams hall, and nothing to do with the testing of our intelligence.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Art, Intelligence

“If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Variant: You are educated when you have the ability to hear almost anything without losing your temper, or your self-confidence.

Confidence, Self-confidence

“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more intelligent and more educated than college professors.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

People, School, Intelligence, Understanding

“Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it.”

John Henrik Clarke (1915–1998) American historian and writer

People

“Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating… too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Life, Forgetting

“Women make up one half of society. Our society will remain backward and in chains unless its women are liberated, enlightened and educated.”

Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) Iraqi politician and President

" Women: One Half of Our Society http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Women_-_One_half_of_our_society" (1981). Source: The Revolution and Woman in Iraq Context: The complete emancipation of women from the ties which held them back in the past, during the ages of despotism and ignorance, is a basic aim of the Party and the Revolution. Women make up one half of society. Our society will remain backward and in chains unless its women are liberated, enlightened and educated.

Women

“Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.”

Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Interview http://www.rationalrevolution.net/special/library/cc835_44.htm with H. G. Wells (September 1937) Stalin's speeches, writings and authorised interviews

Dependency

“I wish more of us could understand that our increasing isolation, no matter how much it seems to express pride and self-affirmation, is not the answer to our problems. Rather, the answer is a revival of our ancient commitment to God, who rules over all the peoples of the world and exalts no one over any other, and to the moral and spiritual values which were once legendary in America. We must reach out our hand in friendship both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy. We must believe in the power of education. We must respect just laws. We must love ourselves, our old and our young, our women as well as our men.
I see nothing inconsistent between being proud of oneself and one's ancestors and, at the same time, seeing oneself first and foremost a member of the commonwealth of all races and creeds.”

Arthur Ashe (1943–1993) American tennis player

Source: Days of Grace: A Memoir (1994), p. 186

Love, Women, Men, God

“The only difference between "propaganda" and "education," really, is in the point of view. The advocacy of what we believe in is education. The advocacy of what we don't believe in is propaganda.”

Edward Bernays (1891–1995) American public relations consultant, marketing pioneer

Source: Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), p. 212

“If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.”

Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician

Part I : The Child's Part in World Reconstruction, p. 4
The Absorbent Mind (1949)

Hope, Knowledge, Future

“We had the highest standard of health and education and housing for our black people than any other country on the African continent. That was what Rhodesians did. I wonder if we shouldn't be given credit for doing that.”

Ian Smith (1919–2007) Prime Minister of Rhodesia

BBC News Obituary of Ian Smith http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1136865.stm, 20 November 2007.

People, Health, Housing, Country

“The virtuosos look to the students of the world to do their share in the education of the great musical public. Do not waste your time with music that is trite or ignoble. Life is too short to spend it wandering in the barren Saharas of musical trash.”

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) Russian composer, pianist, and conductor

Extract from an interview by James Francis Cooke, as given in the 1999 edition of Great Pianists on Piano Playing (Mineola: Dover Publications, 1999) p. 217.

Life, World, Music, Time

“Everyone thought I was going to die like a year later, they didn't know. So I helped educate sports, and then the world, that a man living with HIV can play basketball. He's not going to give it to anybody by playing basketball.”

Magic Johnson (1959) American basketball player

Then & Now: Magic Johnson http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/17/cnn25.tan.johnson/index.html

World, Sport, Help

“I can better understand the inert blindness & defiant ignorance of the reactionaries from having been one of them. I know how smugly ignorant I was—wrapped up in the arts, the natural (not social) sciences, the externals of history & antiquarianism, the abstract academic phases of philosophy, & so on—all the one-sided standard lore to which, according to the traditions of the dying order, a liberal education was limited. God! the things that were left out—the inside facts of history, the rational interpretation of periodic social crises, the foundations of economics & sociology, the actual state of the world today … & above all, the habit of applying disinterested reason to problems hitherto approached only with traditional genuflections, flag-waving, & callous shoulder-shrugs! All this comes up with humiliating force through an incident of a few days ago—when young Conover, having established contact with Henneberger, the ex-owner of WT, obtained from the latter a long epistle which I wrote Edwin Baird on Feby. 3, 1924, in response to a request for biographical & personal data. Little Willis asked permission to publish the text in his combined SFC-Fantasy, & I began looking the thing over to see what it was like—for I had not the least recollection of ever having penned it. Well …. I managed to get through, after about 10 closely typed pages of egotistical reminiscences & showing-off & expressions of opinion about mankind & the universe. I did not faint—but I looked around for a 1924 photograph of myself to burn, spit on, or stick pins in! Holy Hades—was I that much of a dub at 33 … only 13 years ago? There was no getting out of it—I really had thrown all that haughty, complacent, snobbish, self-centred, intolerant bull, & at a mature age when anybody but a perfect damned fool would have known better! That earlier illness had kept me in seclusion, limited my knowledge of the world, & given me something of the fatuous effusiveness of a belated adolescent when I finally was able to get around more in 1920, is hardly much of an excuse. Well—there was nothing to be done … except to rush a note back to Conover & tell him I'd dismember him & run the fragments through a sausage-grinder if he ever thought of printing such a thing! The only consolation lay in the reflection that I had matured a bit since '24. It's hard to have done all one's growing up since 33—but that's a damn sight better than not growing up at all.”

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author

Letter to Catherine L. Moore (7 February 1937), in Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, pp. 407-408
Non-Fiction, Letters

God, Age, World, Fools

“To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books. It has always seemed to me that symbolism should be restored to the structure of world education.”

Manly P. Hall (1901–1990) Canadian writer and mystic

Quoted in the tribute of The Lost Symbol (2009) by Dan Brown
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928)
Context: A nation with culture is blessed. To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books. It has always seemed to me that symbolism should be restored to the structure of world education. The young are no longer invited to seek the hidden truths, dynamic and eternal, locked within the shapes and behavior of living beings.

Books, World

“They call themselves muslims and yet go against the basic tenet of islam which gives equal right to education. If men are not led astray once educated, why should women?”

Begum Rokeya (1880–1932) Bengali feminist writer and social worker

In 1926, when she addressed the bengal women's education conference http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/148459.Rokeya_Sakhawat_Hossain Context: The opponents of the female education say that women will be unruly... fie! They call themselves muslims and yet go against the basic tenet of islam which gives equal right to education. If men are not led astray once educated, why should women?

Women, Men

“Life is a struggle, a competition. Who will be strong in this fight? The one who is smart, educated, works hard. Today, young people should feel the attention of our state, read a lot, increase their knowledge and continue to develop.”

Shavkat Mirziyoyev (1957) President of Uzbekistan (2016-present)

"Shavkat Mirziyoyev: Every young man is as dear to me as to his parents" in UZ Daily https://www.uzdaily.uz/en/post/63421 (4 February 2021)

Life, People, Feeling, Knowledge

“The secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one’s own infallibility with a power to learn from past mistakes.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Secret, Learning, Past

“A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

As quoted in Art of Communicating Ideas (1952) by William Joseph Grace, p. 389
Disputed

School, Cars, Universe, Graduation

“Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know. It means teaching them to behave as they do not behave.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

People

“I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Attributed

“I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.”

Alan Turing Computing Machinery and Intelligence

Source: Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950), p. 442.
Source: Computing machinery and intelligence

Thinking

“I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

As quoted in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984) by Leslie Halliwell
Variant: I find TV very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.

Books, Time, Reading, Funny

“Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“The deeper education consists in unlearning one's first education.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Source: An Anthology

“We don't have education, we have inspiration; if I was educated I would be a damn fool.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

As recorded in Time Will Tell (1992), a documentary by Declan Lowney
Variant: We don't have education we have inspiration; if I was educated I would be a damn fool.
Source: Bob Marley - Legend

Fools

“It's an universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Law, Universe, Personality

“Real education must ultimately be limited to one who INSISTS on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.”

Ezra Pound book ABC of Reading

Source: ABC of Reading (1934), Ch. 8

“The unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps.”

Frantz Fanon book The Wretched of the Earth

Source: The Wretched of the Earth

People, Decision

“The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond; and must be polished, or the lustre of it will never appear. And ’tis manifest, that as the rational soul distinguishes us from brutes; so education carries on the distinction, and makes some less brutish than others.”

Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) English trader, writer and journalist

The Education of Women (1719)

Soul, Appearance

“What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly promising, and fading out into an indifferent middle age.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Age, Idea, Indifference

“Picture the moment when your mom and dad first saw you as something other than a pretty, tiny version of them. You as them, but improved. Better educated. Innocent. Then picture when you stopped being their dream.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

Dreams, Moms

“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 writer and poet

A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)

Time

“The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Source: We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change

Teachers

“The american dream wasn't meant for me, cause lady liberty's a hypocrite she lied to me, promised me freedom, education, and equality never gave me nothing but slavery but now look at how dangerous you made me callin me a mad man because im strong and bold.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

Dreams, Freedom, Strong, Madness

“Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

World, Freedom, Graduation, For Parents

“The new profession of public relations has grown up because of the increasing complexity of modern life and the consequent necessity for making the actions of one part of the public understandable to other sectors of the public. It is due, too, to the increasing dependence of organized power of all sorts upon public opinion. Governments, whether they are monarchical, constitutional, democratic or communist, depend upon acquiescent public opinion for the success of their efforts and, in fact, government is government only by virtue of public acquiescence. Industries, public utilities, educational movements, indeed all groups representing any concept or product, whether they are majority or minority ideas, succeed only because of approving public opinion. Public opinion is the unacknowledged partner in all broad efforts.
The public relations counsel, then, is the agent who, working with modern media of communications and the group formations of society, brings an idea to the consciousness of the public.”

Edward Bernays book Propaganda

Source: Propaganda (1928), p. 63

Life, Communication, Idea, Understanding

“Scientific education for the masses will do little good, and probably a lot of harm, if it simply boils down to more physics, more chemistry, more biology, etc to the detriment of literature and history. Its probable effect on the average human being would be to narrow the range of his thoughts and make him more than ever contemptuous of such knowledge as he did not possess.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"What is Science?" http://orwell.ru/library/articles/science/english/e_scien, Tribune (26 October 1945)

History, Literature, Knowledge

“The Fascist, on the other hand, conceives philosophy as a philosophy of practice (”praxis”). That concept was the product of certain Marxist and Sorellian inspirations (many Fascists and the Duce, himself, received their first intellectual education in the school of Marx and Sorel)—as well as the influence of contemporary Italian idealistic doctrines from which Fascist mentality drew substance and achieved maturity.”

Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944) Italian neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher and politician

“The Philosophy of Fascism,” first published in English in the Spectator, November 1928, pp. 36-37. Reprinted in Origins and Doctrine of Fascism, A. James Gregor, translator and editor, Transaction Publishers (2003) p. 33

School

“Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, and provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

1960s, The American Promise (1965)
Context: This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal" — "government by consent of the governed" — "give me liberty or give me death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives. Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, and provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.

Children, Family, Freedom

“The truth is that Dickens's criticism of society is almost exclusively moral. Hence the utter lack of any constructive suggestion anywhere in his work. He attacks the law, parliamentary government, the educational system and so forth, without ever clearly suggesting what he would put in their places. Of course it is not necessarily the business of a novelist, or a satirist, to make constructive suggestions, but the point is that Dickens's attitude is at bottom not even destructive. There is no clear sign that he wants the existing order to be overthrown, or that he believes it would make very much difference if it were overthrown. For in reality his target is not so much society as ‘human nature’. It would be difficult to point anywhere in his books to a passage suggesting that the economic system is wrong as a system.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"Charles Dickens" (1939)
Charles Dickens (1939)

Truth, Books, Law, Business