Quotes about education
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“The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

“State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and many others, and it has been pursued to this day.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Source: Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda

Support, Learning

“Our world is fast succumbing to the activities of men and women who would stake the future of our species on beliefs that should not survive an elementary school education.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Source: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

Women, Men, World, School

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

Graduation, Teachers' Day

“Remember that a fine education can be found in places other than the usual.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

“The problem in our society and in our schools is to inclulcate, without overdoing it, the notion of education, as in the Latin educere--to lead, to bring out what is in someone rather than merely to indoctrinate him/her from the outside. (89)”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

School, Problem

“If we would spend on education half the amount of money that we currently lavish on sports and entertainment, we could provide complete and free education for every student in this country.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence

Money, Sport, Country

“I suppose that in no educational institution can one become an educated person.”

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) Russian author primarily known for his novel "Master and Margarita"

Source: The Life of Monsieur de Moliere

Personality

“Universal education has created an immense class of what I may call the New Stupid, hungering for certainty yet unable to find it in the traditional myths and their rationalizations.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Hunger, Stupidity, Universe

“Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

1770s, Thoughts on Government (1776)

People, Youth, Law

“Once you've decided that something's absolutely true, you've closed your mind on it, and a closed mind doesn't go anywhere. Question everything. That's what education's all about.”

David Eddings book Belgarath the Sorcerer

Source: Belgarath the Sorcerer

Question

“The most important thing about education is appetite.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

“Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and important. Some confuse that feeling with idealism.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Random Thoughts http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell101705.asp, Oct. 17, 2005 <br class="br">2000s

People, Way, Feeling, Intelligence

“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.”

Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet

Letter to J. G. Lockhart (c. 16 June 1830), in H. J. C. Grierson (ed.), Letters of Sir Walter Scott, Vol. II (1936), as reported in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1999), p. 652

Men, Leadership, For Men

“Education spending will be most effective if it relies on parental choice & private initiative -- the building blocks of success throughout our society.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Parent, Success

“Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate."

(, July 20, 2003)”

Edward Said (1935–2003) Professor of English and literature

World

“Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

Source: The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

Understanding

“We do not trust educated people and rarely, alas, produce them, for we do not trust the independence of mind which alone makes a genuine education possible.”

James Baldwin book Nobody Knows My Name

Source: Nobody Knows My Name

People

“The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1929), Ch. 23.
Context: To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worth while. The natural laziness of the mind tempts one to eschew authors who demand a continuous effort of intelligence. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.
People tell me that they must read the papers so as to know what is going on. In the first place, they could hardly find a worse guide. Most of what is printed turns out to be false, sooner or later. Even when there is no deliberate deception, the account must, from the nature of the case, be presented without adequate reflection and must seem to possess an importance which time shows to be absurdly exaggerated; or vice versa. No event can be fairly judged without background and perspective.

“Whereas she wished more of the population were better educated, she also believed that education was largely wasted on the majority of the people she met.”

John Irving book A Widow for One Year

Source: A Widow for One Year

People

“I like words. And I always learn a few new ones when Father gets angry. I shouldn't neglect my education, now should I?”

Brandon Sanderson book Warbreaker

Source: Warbreaker

Learning

“Being a doctor at Johns Hopkins does not make me any better in God's sight than the individual who has not had the opportunity to gain such an education but who still works hard.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence

God

“My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.”

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

Pleasure, Literature, Reading

“An average person with average talent, ambition and education can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Personality

“We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider every thing as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart.”

Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet

Feeling, Learning, Heart

“Thank goodness my education was neglected.”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

“I said I liked being half-educated; you were so much more surprised at everything when you were ignorant.”

Gerald Durrell book My Family and Other Animals

Source: My Family and Other Animals (1956)

“There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Men, Appearance

“I've concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress genius because we haven't yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.”

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

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

Women, Men, Thinking

“Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers.”

Aldo Leopold book A Sand County Almanac

“March: The Geese Return”, p. 18.
A Sand County Almanac, 1949, "January Thaw", "February: Good Oak" & "March: The Geese Return"
Source: A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There

“I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

The Decorative Arts (1877)

Art, Freedom

“I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Variant: My education was dismal. I went to a series of schools for mentally disturbed teachers.

School, Teachers

“All I know is that I carried you for nine months. I fed you, I clothed you, I paid for your college education. Friending me on Facebook seems like a small thing to ask in return.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

Clothes

“Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferals of information.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

“Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself out of any plan. To deconstruct any fantasy. Explain away any goal. I'm so smart I can negate any dream.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

Dreams

“The difference between stupid and intelligent people – and this is true whether or not they are well-educated – is that intelligent people can handle subtlety.”

Neal Stephenson (1959) American science fiction writer

Source: The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

People, Stupidity, Intelligence

“Total non-retention has kept my education from being a burden to me.”

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

Source: The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

“One of the disadvantages of almost universal education was the fact that all kinds of persons acquired a familiarity with one's favorite writers. It gave one a curious feeling; it was like seeing a drunken stranger wrapped in one's dressing gown.”

Stella Gibbons book Cold Comfort Farm

Source: Cold Comfort Farm

Feeling, Universe, Personality

“The most important part of education — to teach the meaning of to know”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

in the scientific sense
The last statement in her notebook
Waiting on God (1950)

Parting

“Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.”

W.C. Fields (1880–1946) actor

Money, People, Appearance, Past

“Experience, travel - these are an education in themselves.”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Travel

“If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Children, Tree

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“I am self-educated from genre books.”

Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer

Books

“No wonder studies show that women's intellectual self-esteem tends to go down as years of education go up. We have been studying our own absence.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Source: My Life on the Road

Women, Study

“Education must be a lifelong pursuit. The person who doesn't read is not better off than the person who can't.”

Sean Covey (1964) author; business executive

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide

Reading, Personality

“[T]eaching has been for me an education (Lord knows what it has been for my students).”

Howard Nemerov (1920–1991) Poet

“The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education. School is where you go between when your parents can’t take you and industry can’t take you.”

John Updike book The Centaur

Source: The Centaur (1963), Ch. 4

Wisdom, Children, School, Parent

“The very reason for nature's existence is for the education of the soul.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Source: Karma Yoga: the Yoga of Action

Soul, Nature

“How can you pass laws about things that nobody knows?"
"They do it all the time," says Hayden. "That's what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

Law, Time

“We do not at present educate people to think but, rather, to have opinions, and that is something altogether different.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

People, Thinking

“But remember that the pain of parting from friends will be felt by everybody at times, whatever be their education or state. Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience; or give it a more fascinating name: call it hope.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

Pain, Happiness, Hope, Time

“Unless you are educated in metaphor, you are not safe to be let loose in the world.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Variant: Unless you are at home in the metaphor, you are not safe anywhere.

World

“We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.”

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

Intelligence

“Decisions. Where, what, why. Can't handle them. So I'm prolonging the indecision with higher education.”

Kamila Shamsie (1973) Pakistani writer

Source: Salt and Saffron

Decision, Indecision

“Books are educational; so you can buy as many as you want." Sophie Kinsella, shopping at the Limelight Marketplace”

Sophie Kinsella (1969) British writer

Books

“One's work may be finished someday, but one's education never.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

“To educate the peasantry, three things are needed: schools, schools and schools.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

School

“I want to urge you very strongly to travel as much as you can, and to evolve yourself as an internationalist. It's as important a part of your education as a radical as the reading of any book.”

Christopher Hitchens Letters to a Young Contrarian

Source: Letters to a Young Contrarian

Books, Travel, Reading, Parting

“According to Plato, we don't learn anything. Our soul has lived so many lives that we know everything. Teachers and education can only remind us of what we already know.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Source: Diary

Soul, Learning, Teachers

“Your education or your life, Claire. I'd rather you be alive and a little bit dumber.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: The Dead Girls' Dance

Life

“Oh my God, I thought. I’m rooming with the Sydney Sage of re-education.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

God

“Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Nature

“The walls of the educational system must come down. Education should not be a privilege, so the children of those who have money can study.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Speech at the University of Las Villas (1959)
Source: Che Guevara Talks to Young People
Context: The walls of the educational system must come down. Education should not be a privilege, so the children of those who have money can study. Education should be the daily bread of the people of Cuba.

Money, Children, Study

“All you have to do to educate a child is leave him alone and teach him to read. The rest is brainwashing.”

Ellen Gilchrist (1935) Fiction writer, poet

Reading

“There is no fool like an educated fool…”

Margaret Atwood book Alias Grace

Source: Alias Grace

Fools

“A good book is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility what human nature is of what happens in the world. It's a creator of inwardness.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Books, World, Nature, Sense

“An intelligent, energetic, educated woman cannot be kept in four walls — even satin-lined, diamond-studded walls — without discovering sooner or later that they are still a prison cell.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

"America's Medieval Women," Harper's Magazine (August 1938)

Intelligence

“The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Secret

“By instructing students how to learn, unlearn and relearn, a powerful new dimension can be added to education.”

Alvin Toffler (1928–2016) American writer

Future Shock (1970), ch. 18
Source: Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Power at the Edge of the 21st Century

Learning

“It has been discovered that with a dull urban population, all formed under a mechanical system of State education, a suggestion or command, however senseless and unreasoned, will be obeyed if it be sufficiently repeated.”

Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) writer

Source: An Essay on the Restoration of Property

“Their whole life depends on spending money, and now they’ve
got none to spend. That’s our civilization and our education: bring up
the masses to depend entirely on spending money, and then the money
gives out.”

D.H. Lawrence book Lady Chatterley's Lover

Source: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Life, Money, Dependency

“[Education] has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.”

George Macaulay Trevelyan (1876–1962) Historian

English Social History (1942), ch. 18.

Reading

“Education isn't just about feeding the brain. Art and music feed the heart and soul.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Art, Music, Soul, Heart

“So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them!”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Hunger, Personality

“Culture and education are the lethal weapons against all kinds of fundamentalism.”

Marjane Satrapi (1969) Artist

Source: Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

“There will be no mass-based feminist movement as long as feminist ideas are understood only by a well-educated few.”

Bell Hooks book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

(1984)
Source: Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

Idea

“Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

Men, Books

“I read in the newspapers they are going to have 30 minutes of intellectual stuff on television every Monday from 7:30 to 8. to educate America. They couldn't educate America if they started at 6:30.”

Groucho Marx book The Groucho Letters

Source: The Groucho Letters

Reading

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.”

Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) American writer and scientist

" The Round River: A Parable http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/AldoLeopold/AldoLeopold-idx?type=turn&entity=AldoLeopold.ALDeskFile.p0655&id=AldoLeopold.ALDeskFile&isize=XL" (c. 1940-48); Published in Round River, Luna B. Leopold (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1966, p. 165. <br class="br">1940s

World, Penalty

“What a moron I was to think you were sweet and innocent, when it turns out you were actually college-educated the whole time!”

Margaret Atwood book The Edible Woman

Source: The Edible Woman

Thinking, Time