A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.

I willingly confess to so great a partiality for trees as tempts me to respect a man in exact proportion to his respect for them.

Nature, they say, doth dote, And cannot make a man Save on some worn-out plan, Repeating us by rote.

The opening of the first grammar school was the opening of the first trench against monopoly in Church and State.

It was in making education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that the destiny of the free republics of America was practically settled.

It may be conjectured that it is cheaper in the long run to lift men up than to hold them down, and that the ballot in their hands is less dangerous to society than a sense of wrong is in their heads.

Truth always has a bewitching savor of newness in it, and novelty at the first taste recalls that original sweetness to the tongue; but alas for him who would make the one a substitute for the other.