We with our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest... But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground.

All natural goods perish. Riches take wings; fame is a breath; love is a cheat; youth and health and pleasure vanish.

The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.

I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young-or slender.

You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.