Quotes on Education

Churchill on Life's Lessons

I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

-- Winston Churchill

Twain on Learning

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant, I could hardly stand to have him around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

-- Mark Twain

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

-- Mark Twain

Knowledge

Next to the possession of knowledge is the ability to turn at will to where knowledge is to be found.

-- the Hon. James D. Richardson, member of Congress, in A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1897.

Public Education

Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property ... He must be taught to amass wealth, but it must be only to increase his power of contributing to the wants and demands of the state... [Education] can be done effectually only by the interference and aid of the Legislature.

-- Benjamin Rush, 1786

Society vs. Parents

The secret of the superiority of state over private education lies in the fact that in the former the teacher is responsible to society... [T]he result desired by the state is a wholly different one from that desired by parents, guardians, and pupils.

-- Lester Frank Ward 1897

The Despotism of Uniformity

State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly alike one another; ... in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body.

-- John Stuart Mill, 1859

Tyranny and Public Education

Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.

-- Benjamin Disraeli, 1874