Quotes about education
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Malcolm X photo

“The same government that you go abroad to fight for and die for is the government that is in a conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive you of your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent housing, deprive you of decent education. You don’t need to go to the employer alone, it is the government itself, the government of America, that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of black people in this country.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)
Context: You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy, we’re faced with a government conspiracy. Everyone who’s filibustering is a senator—that’s the government. Everyone who’s finagling in Washington, D. C., is a congressman—that’s the government. You don’t have anybody putting blocks in your path but people who are a part of the government. The same government that you go abroad to fight for and die for is the government that is in a conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive you of your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent housing, deprive you of decent education. You don’t need to go to the employer alone, it is the government itself, the government of America, that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of black people in this country. And you should drop it in their lap. This government has failed the Negro. This so-called democracy has failed the Negro. And all these white liberals have definitely failed the Negro.

Abraham Lincoln photo

“I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the freed people of such State, which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the national Executive.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863)
Context: And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the freed people of such State, which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the national Executive. And it is suggested as not improper, that, in constructing a loyal State government in any State, the name of the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new State government.

Barack Obama photo

“If you want to go into government, you shouldn’t just want to be a particular government official. You should want to go into government because you think it can help educate some children, or it can help provide jobs for people who need work.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2014, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Town Hall (April 2014)
Context: And when I think back to my journey, my past, I think the most important thing for -- and maybe the most important thing for all the young people here -- is to realize that you really can have an impact on the world; you can achieve your dreams. But in order to do so, you have to focus not so much on a title or how much money you’re going to make, you have to focus more on what kind of influence and impact are you going to have on other people’s lives -- what good can you do in the world. Now, that may involve starting a business, but if you want to start a business you should be really excited about the product or the service that you’re making. It shouldn’t just be how much money I can make -- because the business people who I meet who do amazing things, like Bill Gates, who started Microsoft -- they’re usually people who are really interested in what they do and they really think that it can make a difference in people’s lives. If you want to go into government, you shouldn’t just want to be a particular government official. You should want to go into government because you think it can help educate some children, or it can help provide jobs for people who need work. So I think the most important thing for me was when I started thinking more about other people and how I could have an impact in my larger society and community, and wasn’t just thinking about myself. That’s when I think your dreams can really take off -- because if you’re only thinking about you, then your world is small; if you‘re thinking about others, then your world gets bigger.

Barack Obama photo

“I am asking the same thing of you that President Bush did when he spoke at this commencement in 2002: “America needs more than taxpayers, spectators, and occasional voters,” he said. “America needs full-time citizens.”
And as graduates from a university whose motto is “Education for Citizenship,” that’s what your country expects of you. So briefly, I will ask you for two things: to participate, and to persevere.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2013, Commencement Address at Ohio State University (May 2013)
Context: I don’t pretend to have all the answers. And I’m not going to offer some grand theory – not when it’s a beautiful day and you’ve got some celebrating to do. I’m not going to get partisan, either, because that’s not what citizenship is about. In fact, I am asking the same thing of you that President Bush did when he spoke at this commencement in 2002: “America needs more than taxpayers, spectators, and occasional voters,” he said. “America needs full-time citizens.”
And as graduates from a university whose motto is “Education for Citizenship,” that’s what your country expects of you. So briefly, I will ask you for two things: to participate, and to persevere.
After all, your democracy does not function without your active participation. At a bare minimum, that means voting, eagerly and often. It means knowing who’s been elected to make decisions on your behalf, what they believe in, and whether or not they deliver. If they don’t represent you the way you want, or conduct themselves the way you expect – if they put special interests above your own – you’ve got to let them know that’s not okay. And if they let you down, there’s a built-in day in November where you can really let them know that’s not okay.

Saul Bellow photo

“There's something that remains barbarous in educated people, and lately I've more and more had the feeling that we are nonwondering primitives.”

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer

"A Half Life" (1990), pp. 302-303
It All Adds Up (1994)
Context: There's something that remains barbarous in educated people, and lately I've more and more had the feeling that we are nonwondering primitives. And why is it that we no longer marvel at these technological miracles? They've become the external facts of every life. We've all been to the university, we've had introductory courses in everything, and therefore we have persuaded ourselves that if we had the time to apply ourselves to these scientific marvels, we would understand them. But of course that's an illusion. It couldn't happen. Even among people who have had careers in science. They know no more about how it all works than we do. So we are in the position of savage men who, however, have been educated into believing that they are capable of understanding everything. Not that we actually do understand, but that we have the capacity.

Abraham Lincoln photo

“There were some schools, so called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin', writin', and cipherin' " to the rule of three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1850s, Autobiographical Sketch Written for Jesse W. Fell (1859)
Context: There were some schools, so called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin', writin', and cipherin' " to the rule of three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.

“Education is what, when, and why to do things. Training is how to do it. Either one without the other is not of much use.”

Richard Hamming (1915–1998) American mathematician and information theorist

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)
Context: I am concerned with educating and not training you.... Education is what, when, and why to do things. Training is how to do it. Either one without the other is not of much use. You might think education should precede training, but the kind of educating I am trying to do must be based on your past experiences and technical knowledge.<!-- Preface

George Sutherland photo
Frank Zappa photo

“Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts.”

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

Liner notes for the album Freak Out! (27 June 1966).
Context: Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read. Forget I mentioned it. This song has no message. Rise for the flag salute.

Walker Evans photo

“It is the way to educate your eyes, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop.”

Walker Evans (1903–1975) American photographer

Source: Tom Ang (2010), The Complete Photographer. p. 65

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“That farmer is a poor creature who skins the land and leaves it worthless to his children. The farmer is a good farmer who, having enabled the land to support himself and to provide for the education of his children, leaves it to them a little better than he found it himself. I believe the same thing of a nation.”

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

1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)
Context: Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us. I ask nothing of the nation except that it so behave as each farmer here behaves with reference to his own children. That farmer is a poor creature who skins the land and leaves it worthless to his children. The farmer is a good farmer who, having enabled the land to support himself and to provide for the education of his children, leaves it to them a little better than he found it himself. I believe the same thing of a nation.

Saul Bellow photo

“So we are in the position of savage men who, however, have been educated into believing that they are capable of understanding everything. Not that we actually do understand, but that we have the capacity.”

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer

"A Half Life" (1990), pp. 302-303
It All Adds Up (1994)
Context: There's something that remains barbarous in educated people, and lately I've more and more had the feeling that we are nonwondering primitives. And why is it that we no longer marvel at these technological miracles? They've become the external facts of every life. We've all been to the university, we've had introductory courses in everything, and therefore we have persuaded ourselves that if we had the time to apply ourselves to these scientific marvels, we would understand them. But of course that's an illusion. It couldn't happen. Even among people who have had careers in science. They know no more about how it all works than we do. So we are in the position of savage men who, however, have been educated into believing that they are capable of understanding everything. Not that we actually do understand, but that we have the capacity.

Malala Yousafzai photo
Frédéric Bastiat photo
Gary Soto photo

“Mine is literary, and mine has a story to tell about a little boy with gaps in his education who became a writer. I’m hoping that the visitor will be curious, not unlike when someone goes to another person’s house for the first time—you look around and learn something about that person. We’re curious creatures, right?”

Gary Soto (1952) American poet and writer

On the Gary Soto Literary Museum in Fresno, California in “Jo Ellen Misakian Interviews Author Gary Soto on His New Books, Writing & the Gary Soto Literary Museum” https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/2011/10/jo-ellen-misakian-interviews-author/ (Cynthia Leitich Smith site)

Pierre Joseph Proudhon photo
Frank Zappa photo
Barack Obama photo
Jawaharlal Nehru photo

“I am English by education, Muslim by culture and Hindu merely by accident.”

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian lawyer, statesman, and writer, first Prime Minister of India

While this is often attributed to Nehru, it was actually something said by the Hindu Mahasabha leader, N. B. Khare.
Khare states, "Nehru’s is a very complex personality. As he himself has explained in his Autobiography, he is English by education, Muslim by culture and Hindu by an accident of birth."
"The Angry Aristocrat", N. B. Khare in A Study of Nehru, Rafiq Zakaria (ed.), 1960.
No such passage exists in Nehru's autobiography. https://www.altnews.in/did-jawaharlal-nehru-ever-say-i-am-english-by-education-muslim-by-culture-and-hindu-by-accident/
Misattributed

Jawaharlal Nehru photo
Jawaharlal Nehru photo
Jawaharlal Nehru photo
Bertrand Russell photo
Nikola Tesla photo
Edward Bellamy photo
Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma photo
Jacque Fresco photo
Jacque Fresco photo

“When education and resources are available to all without a price tag, there will be no limit to human potential.”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

Source: Designing the Future (2007), p.81

Jacinda Ardern photo
Pope Francis photo

“Only by changing education can we change the world.”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

Address of Pope Francis to members of the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation, 25 June 2018 .

Source: Address of Pope Francis to members of the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2018/june/documents/papa-francesco_20180625_gravissimum-educationis.html
2010s, 2018

“We forget that education is not school and school is not education.”

Christian Canlubo (2002) Filipino Internet Entrepreneur

"Learning is something we have to do every day, so if you tell me that I should finish my studies then you are saying that I am going to end my life."

Christian Canlubo answered to a person who tell him that he should finished his learning to be a successful person.

Source: Christian Canlubo https://en.everybodywiki.com/Christian_Canlubo| Christian Canlubo profile on EverybodyWiki

Marjorie Taylor Greene photo
Mikhail Bakunin photo
Jean-Michel Cousteau photo
Maria Montessori photo
Zafar Mirzo photo
Pope Francis photo

“In education dwells the seed of hope: hope for peace and justice, hope for beauty and goodness; hope for social harmony.”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

2020s, 2021
Source: Cited in Pope Francis: Art creates brotherhood and friendship https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-12/pope-francis-art-creates-brotherhood-and-friendship.html in the Vatican News. (15 December 2021)

Pope Francis photo
Karl Marx photo

“Schooling is organized by command and control from without; education is self-organized from within…”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (2008)
Source: Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling, New Society Publishers (2013) p. 177

Eckhart Tolle photo
Faisal of Saudi Arabia photo

“Our youth education is based on three pillars: belief, science and work.”

Faisal of Saudi Arabia (1906–1975) King of Saudi Arabia

https://www.kff.com/king-faisal-bin-abdulaziz/

Ken Robinson photo

“It is my contention that Creativity is as important today in Education as Literacy and we should treat it with the same status.”

Ken Robinson (1950) UK writer

TED Conference http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html (2006)

Robert G. Ingersoll photo
George Santayana photo

“A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

“Why I Am Not a Marxist” http://books.google.com/books?id=O4weAQAAMAAJ&q=educated+only+at+school+#search_anchor “Modern Monthly: Volume: 9″ (April 1935); Page: 77-79.
Other works

James Baldwin photo
Arundhati Roy photo
Khushwant Singh photo
Cormac McCarthy photo
Ellen DeGeneres photo

“I like to stretch my mind by reading and writing and watching educational TV shows like The Bachelor to learn the complex mating rituals of heterosexuals.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Eileen Myles photo
Elbert Hubbard photo

“Football: A sport that bears the same relation to education that bullfighting does to agriculture.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul
Albert Einstein photo

“What's gotten in the way of education in the United States is a theory of social engineering that says there is ONE RIGHT WAY to proceed with growing up.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Source: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992), p. 68

D.H. Lawrence photo
Alexandre Dumas photo
Marjane Satrapi photo

“Once again, I arrived at my usual conclusion: one must educate oneself.”

Marjane Satrapi (1969) Artist

Source: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Arthur C. Clarke photo
Flannery O’Connor photo

“She had observed that the more education they got, the less they could do. Their father had gone to a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade and he could do anything.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories

Ken Robinson photo

“We have sold ourselves into a fast-food model of education. And it’s impoverishing our spirits and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies.”

Ken Robinson (1950) UK writer

TED Conference 2010 TED Conference http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html (2010)

Noam Chomsky photo
George Bernard Shaw photo
Helen Keller photo

“The highest result of education is tolerance”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
Matt Damon photo

“You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.”

Matt Damon (1970) American actor, screenwriter, and producer

Source: Good Will Hunting

Henry Adams photo

“The chief wonder of education is that it does not ruin everybody concerned in it, teachers and taught.”

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
Source: The Education of Henry Adams

Pete Seeger photo
George Eliot photo

“Those who trust us educate us.”

Source: Daniel Deronda (1876)

Marcus Tullius Cicero photo
Joseph Heller photo
Greg Mortenson photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“It doesn`t hurt to get more education.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America
Daniel J. Boorstin photo

“Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.”

Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American historian

A Case of Hypochondria, Newsweek (6 July 1970).

Dylan Thomas photo
Greg Mortenson photo

“If you teach a boy, you educate an individual; but if you teach a girl, you educate a community.”

Greg Mortenson (1957) American mountaineer and humanitarian

Source: Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Paul Karl Feyerabend photo
Stephen Fry photo
Paulo Freire photo
Pearl S.  Buck photo
Assata Shakur photo
Jane Austen photo
Eric Ripert photo
B.F. Skinner photo

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”

B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) American behaviorist

"New methods and new aims in teaching", in New Scientist, 22(392) (21 May 1964), pp.483-4.