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.

It seems the natural thing for us to listen whilst the Europeans talk.

Good-humor is a philosophic state of mind; it seems to say to Nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us. I maintain that one should always talk of philosophy with a smile.

Men habitually use only a small part of the power which they actually possess.

An impression which simply flows in at the pupil's eyes or ears and in no way modifies his active life, is an impression gone to waste. It is physiologically incomplete... Its motor consequences are what clinch it.

If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.

Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us; our hour of triumph is what brings the void.