It requires troublesome work to undertake the alteration of old beliefs.

If humanity has made some headway in realizing that the ultimate value of every institution is its distinctively human effect - its effect upon conscious experience - we may well believe that this lesson has been learned largely through dealings with the young.

While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing.

I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.

Education must be understood as growth, or the facilitation of growth.

The school must be "a genuine form of active community life, instead of a place set apart in which to learn lessons".

The real process of education should be the process of learning to think through the application of real problems.