“A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do never does all he can.”

“The primary principle of education is the determination of the pupil to self-activity — the doing nothing for him which he is able to do for himself.”

“He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.”

“Posterity is the world to come; the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility. We must do what America does best: offer more opportunity to all and demand responsibility from all.”

“No one can lose either the past or the future - how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess?… It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have.”

“He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.”

“You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do…”

“He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives.”

“People to whom nothing has ever happened cannot understand the unimportance of events.”

“The teacher does best, not when he explains, but when he impels his pupils to seek themselves the explanation.”