At certain times and in certain schools it is orthodox to be a rebel; and in general it is a very poor class that does not contain at least three pupils who can be counted on to oppose the teachers authority and loudly and persistently to question everything he says.

You [the teacher] do not merely insert a lot of facts, if you teach them [the students] properly. It is not like injecting 500 cc. of serum, or administering a year's dose of vitamins.

Most Americans do not like poetry. We may respect it, but we do not enjoy it.

The chief aim of education is to show you, after you make a livelihood, how to enjoy living; and you can live longest and best and most rewardingly by attaining and preserving the happiness of learning.

The Sonnets of Shakespeare have the fascination of an autobiography, without its clarity. It is like reading an important document in a cave by the light of matches which keep blowing out.

Many people have played themselves to death. Many people have eaten and drunk themselves to death. Nobody ever thought himself to death.

Like all great teachers he knew that a picture is worth a thousand words and that people learn most quickly by doing something or seeing something done.