All quotes

They may be truths to me, but don’t think that that makes them mine… because you can’t own a truth.

There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy, than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.

All sincere and earnest search after truth, even where it fails to reach it, yet, often comes so near to it, that other minds more happily situated may be led, by pointing out its very limitations and errors, to obtain a larger view.

Free trade in labour and equality of training, intellectual or physical, is essential if the organic aptitudes of a sex or class are to be determined.

Give us labour and the training which fits for labour! We demand this, not for ourselves alone, but for the race.

the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market

To stick to a thing till you are master, is a test of intellectual discipline and power.

But music never has to depend upon any obvious meaning; it expresses what no words can ever express.

For joy is knowledge in its completeness, it is knowing by our whole being.

For we never can make anything our own except that which is truly related to us.

The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another--until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

the true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing

To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.

Time should not be allowed to pass without yielding fruits, in the form of something learnt worthy of being known, some good principle cultivated, or some good habit strengthened.

The goal of mankind is knowledge. That is the one ideal placed before us by Eastern philosophy.

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.

Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful disobedience

In short, all artificial education ought to be an anticipation of natural education.

The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature.

Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty game.

Every fact we learn leads us to the learning of another fact; knowledge is continually increasing.

Every thought we think makes it necessary for us to think another thought; consciousness is continually expanding.

Sensation is unorganized stimulus, perception is organized sensation, conception is organized perception, science is organized knowledge, wisdom is organized life: each is a greater degree of order, and sequence, and unity.

When the interests of mankind are at stake, they will obey with joy the man whom they believe to be wiser than themselves.