A vision of truth which does not call upon us to get out of our armchair - why, this is the desideratum of mankind.

Benevolence alone will not make a teacher, nor will learning alone do it. The gift of teaching is a peculiar talent, and implies a need and a craving in the teacher himself.

Inspired teachers ... cannot be ordered by the gross from the factory. They must be discovered one by one, and brought home from the woods and swamps like orchids. They must be placed in a conservatory, not in a carpenter shop; and they must be honored and trusted.

As for boredom ... I notice that it leaves me as soon as I am doing something that has got to be done.

The fact that a man is to vote forces him to think.

Politics is organized hatred, that is unity.

One of the deepest impulses in man is the impulse to record, - to scratch a drawing on a tusk or keep a diary, to collect sagas and heap cairns. This instinct as to the enduring value of the past is, one might say, the very basis of civilization.