Mental development must be connected with movement and be dependent on it. It is vital that educational theory and practice should be informed by that idea.

He who experiments must, while doing so, divest himself of every preconception. It is clear then that if we wish to make use of a method of experimental psychology, the first thing necessary is to renounce all former creeds and to proceed by means of the method in the search for truth.

When mental development is under discussion, there are many who say, 'How does movement come into it? We are talking about the mind.' And when we think of intellectual activity, we always imagine people sitting still, motionless. But mental development must be connected with movement and be dependent on it. It is vital that educational theory and practice should be informed by that idea.

The fundamental basis of education must always remain that one must act for oneself. That is clear. One must act for him or herself.

This then is the first duty of an educator: to stir up life but leave it free to develop.

An interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than fatigue, adds to the child's energies and mental capacities, and leads him to self-mastery.

Human dignity ... is derived from a sense of independence.