There's no music in rest, but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life melody, always talking of perseverance and courage and fortitude; but patience is the finest and worthiest part of fortitude, and the rarest, too.

The imagination is never governed, it is always the ruling and divine power.

The art of drawing which is of more real importance to the human race than that of writing...should be taught to every child just as writing is.

If only the Geologists would let me alone, I could do very well, but those dreadful Hammers! I hear the clink of them at the end of every cadence of the Bible verses.

To be taught to read—what is the use of that, if you know not whether what you read is false or true? To be taught to write or to speak—but what is the use of speaking, if you have nothing to say? To be taught to think—nay, what is the use of being able to think, if you have nothing to think of? But to be taught to see is to gain word and thought at once, and both true.

The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.

The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.