An observant child should be put in the way of things worth observing.

Imagination does not stir at the suggestion of the feeble, much diluted stuff that is too often put into children’s hands.

Composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books.

Children should Transcribe favourite Passages. A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favourite verse in one poem and another.

We talk of lost ideals, but perhaps they are not lost, only changed; when our ideal for ourselves and for our children becomes limited to prosperity and comfort, we get these, very likely, for ourselves and for them, but we get no more.

As for literature – to introduce children to literature is to install them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served. But they must learn to know literature by being familiar with it from the very first. A child's intercourse must always be with good books, the best that we can find.

Do not let the endless succession of small things crowd great ideals out of sight and out of mind.