The more horrifying this world becomes, the more art becomes abstract.

The belief that we some day shall be able to prevent war is to me one with the belief in the possibility of making humanity really human.

All philanthropy ... is only a savory fumigation burning at the mouth of a sewer. This incense offering makes the air more endurable to passers-by, but it does not hinder the infection in the sewer from spreading.

Conventionality is the tacit agreement to set appearances before reality, form before content.

The educator must above all understand how to wait; to reckon all effects in the light of the future, not of the present.

At every step the child should be allowed to meet the real experience of life; the thorns should never be plucked from his roses.

Nothing would more effectively further the development of education than for all flogging pedagogues to learn to educate with the head instead of with the hand.