We have no firm hold on any knowledge or philosophy that can lift us out of our difficulties.

It is a rare privilege to watch the birth, growth, and first feeble struggles of a living mind; this privilege is mine.

We imagine that we want to escape our selfish and commonplace existence, but we cling desperately to our chains.

Our material eye cannot see that a stupid chauvinism is driving us from one noisy, destructive, futile agitation to another.

Certain periods in history suddenly lift humanity to an observation point where a clear light falls upon a world previously dark.

I cannot explain it; but when difficulties arise, I am not perplexed or doubtful. I know how to meet them.

The Great War proved how confused the world is. Depression is proving it again.

A strenuous effort must be made to train young people to think for themselves and take independent charge of their lives.

I’d rather break stones on the king’s highway than hem a handkerchief.

Yes, I am proud, and very humble too.

No matter how mistaken Communist ideas may be, the experience and knowledge gained by trying them out have given a tremendous impetus to thought and imagination.

If the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself.

I need a teacher quite as much as Helen. I know the education of this child will be the distinguishing event of my life, if I have the brains and perseverance to accomplish it.

Education in the light of present-day knowledge and need calls for some spirited and creative innovations both in the substance and the purpose of current pedagogy.

The processes of teaching the child that everything cannot be as he wills it are apt to be painful both to him and to his teacher.

We are bothered a good deal by people who assume the responsibility of the world when God is neglectful.

We have no firm hold on any knowledge or philosophy that can lift us out of our difficulties.

The immediate future is going to be tragic for all of us unless we find a way of making the vast educational resources of this country serve the true purpose of education, truth and justice.

Every renaissance comes to the world with a cry, the cry of the human spirit to be free.

We are afraid of ideas, of experimenting, of change. We shrink from thinking a problem through to a logical conclusion.

The wrong things are predominantly stressed in the schools – things remote from the student’s experience and need.