I’ll never retire as long as I live—that’s like retiring from life! I’ll never stop writing, teaching, lecturing. If you’re in good health, living is exciting on its own.

When giving comes directly from the heart, it can never disappoint or embarrass.

I want to point the way to something that should forever lure them, when the TV set is broken and the movie is over and the school bell has rung for the last time.

To the outside world, of course, this job is a cinch: 9 to 3, five days a week, two months' summer vacation with pay, all legal holidays, prestige and respect. My mother, for example, has the pleasant notion that my day consists of nodding graciously to the rustle of starched curtsies and a chorus of respectful voices bidding me good morning.

And that's it; that's why I want to teach; that's the one and only compensation: to make a permanent difference in the life of a child.

... good teachers, like Tolstoy's happy families, are alike everywhere.

Children are the true connoisseurs. What’s precious to them has no price, only value.