To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination.

It is much easier to try one’s hand at many things than to concentrate one’s powers on one thing.

It is worth while too to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times to discourage a boy’s mind from effort.

A liar should have a good memory.

It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.

When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.

To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination.

Though ambition itself be a vice, yet it is often times the cause of virtues.

Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.

For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.

When we cannot hope to win, it is an advantage to yield.

The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice.

Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.

Verse satire indeed is entirely our own.

Without natural gifts technical rules are useless.

As regards parents, I should like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I do not restrict this remark to fathers alone.