. . . the triumph of my art is in thoroughly examining whether the thought which the mind of the young man brings forth is a false idol or a noble and true birth.

May not the wolf, as the proverb says, claim a hearing?

Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.

For a poet is an airy thing, winged and holy, and he is not able to make poetry until he becomes inspired and goes out of his mind and his intellect is no longer in him.

The democratic youth lives along day by day, gratifying the desire that occurs to him, at one time drinking and listening to the flute, at another downing water and reducing, now practicing gymnastic, and again idling and neglecting everything; and sometimes spending his time as though he were occupied in philosophy.

If particulars are to have meaning, there must be universals.

It behooves those who take the young to task to leave them room for excuse, lest they drive them to be hardened by too much rebuke.