Americans began by loving youth, and now, out of adult self-pity, they worship it.

The history of creation is but a succession of battles between amateurs of genius-inspired heretics- and orthodox professionals.

Above all, do not talk yourself out of good ideas by trying to expound them at haphazard meetings.

Idealism springs from deep feelings, but feelings are nothing without the formulated idea that keeps them whole.

It is not clear to anyone, least of all the practitioners, how science and technology in their headlong course do or should influence ethics and law, education and government, art and social philosophy, religion and the life of the affections. Yet science is an all-pervasive energy, for it is at once a mode of thought, a source of strong emotion, and a faith as fanatical as any in history.

I can only think that the book is read because it deals with the difficulties of schooling, which do not change. Please note: the difficulties, not the problems. Problems are solved or disappear with the revolving times. Difficulities remain. It will always be difficult to teach well, to learn accurately; to read, write, and count readily and competently; to acquire a sense of history and start one's education or anothers.

Bad writing, it is easily verified, has never kept scholarship from being published.