Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2025-04-02 Apr 2, 2025The ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them.~ Albert EinsteinWhat I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence -- moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how 'democracy' (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods?... The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be "undemocratic." ... Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma — Beelzebub, what a useful word! — by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. ... We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when "I'm as good as you" has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to over-top their fellows? And anyway the teachers — or should I say, nurses? — will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men.~ C. S. LewisWho besides a degraded rabble would voluntarily present itself to be graded and classified like meat? No wonder school is compulsory.~ John Taylor Gatto Apr 1, 2025Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.~ Henry Brooks AdamsYou can never get enough of what you don't really need.~ Eric HofferI prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.~ Michel de Montaigne Mar 31, 2025Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.~ Edmund BurkeLegal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways; hence, there are an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, bonuses, subsidies, incentives, the progressive income tax, free education, the right to employment, the right to profit, the right to wages, the right to relief, the right to the tools of production, interest free credit, etc., etc. And it the aggregate of all these plans, in respect to what they have in common, legal plunder, that goes under the name of socialism.~ Frederic BastiatRespect for the truth is an acquired taste.~ Mark Van Doren Mar 28, 2025I don't want my children fed or clothed by the state, but if I had to choose, I would prefer that to their being educated by the state.~ Max Victor BelzFar from failing in its intended task, our educational system is in fact succeeding magnificently, because its aim is to keep the American people thoughtless enough to go on supporting the system.~ Richard Mitchell Mar 27, 2025...[A] fool cannot be protected from his folly. If you attempt to do so, you will not only arouse his animosity but also you will be attempting to deprive him of whatever benefit he is capable of deriving from experience. Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.~ Robert A. Heinlein Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print