Tag Archives: philosophy/religion

Aristotle on the Elements of an Education

“At present there are differences of opinion…for all peoples do not agree as to the things that the young ought to learn, either with a view to virtue or with a view to the best life, nor is it clear whether their studies should be regulated more with regard to intellect or to regard to character.”

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

John Cotton Dana on the Gravamen of Teachers’ Professional Development

“Who dares to teach, must never cease to learn.”

John Cotton Dana (1856-1929)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

Horace Mann on Education as a Human Right

“I believe in the existence of a great, immutable principle of natural law, or natural ethics which proves the absolute right of every human being that comes into the world to an education; and which, of course, proves the correlative duty of every government to see that the means of an education are provided for all.”

Horace Mann, as Quoted in Places for Learning, Places for Joy: Speculations on American School Reform by Theodore R. Sizer (1973)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

Rotten Reviews: Francis Bacon

“His faults were–we write it with pain–coldness of heart, and meanness of spirit. He seems to have been incapable of feeling strong affection, of facing great dangers, of making great sacrifices. His desires were set on things below, titles, patronage, the mace, the seals, the coronet, large houses, fair gardens, rich manors, many services of pate…”

T.B. MacaulayEssays 1842

Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

Cyril Connolly on Decadence

“The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.”

Cyril Connolly

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

Knowledge and Contentment

“Our best chance for happiness is education.”

Mark Van Doren (1894-1973)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

Memo to Global Studies Teachers from Voltaire

“The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.”

Voltaire

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

The Teachers’ Art

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

Albert Einstein Motto for the Astronomy Building at Pasadena Junior College

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

Rotten Reviews: Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A hoary-headed and toothless baboon.”

Thomas CarlyleCollected Works 1871

“Belongs to a class of gentlemen with whom we have no patience whatever–the mystics for mysticism’s sake. The best answer to his twaddle is cui bono?–a very little Latin phrase very generally mistranslated and misunderstood–cui bono? to whom is it a benefit. If not to Mr. Emerson generally, then surely to no man.

Edgar Allan Poe, in a chapter of autobiography 1842

Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

Richard Hofstadter on Intellectual and Academic Freedom

“A university’s essential character is that of being a center of free inquiry and criticism—a thing not to be sacrificed for anything else.”

Richard Hofstadter in His Commencement Address at Columbia University (1968)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.