I had no companions to quarrel with, nobody to assist, and nobody to thank... the evil consequence of all this was not, however, what might perhaps have been expected, that I grew up selfish or non affectionate; but that, when affection did come, it came with a violence utterly rampant and unmanageable.

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

Better a child should be ignorant of a thousand truths than have consecrated in its heart a single lie.

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion.

Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.

Children see in their parents the past, their parents see in them the future; and if we find more love in the parents for their children than in children for their parents, this is sad but natural. Who does not entertain his hopes more than his recollections.

I know well that happiness is in little things.