Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.

Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor.

Look at the stars and not down at your own feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

Common sense is the very antipodes of science.

Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in nature—daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it—rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! The actual world! The common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where are we?

People all over the nation are starved for honesty and common sense.

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in few words

I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push and educational message.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.

A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country.

A student is not a container you have to fill, but a torch you have to light up.

Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn.

As an apple is not in any proper sense an apple until it is ripe, so a human being is not in any proper sense a human being until he is educated.

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again—and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more.

Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionately to their occupancy of your thoughts.

To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story.

Individuals are the sum of their unique experiences, challenges, and accomplishments. What matters is not the barriers they face, but how they choose to confront them. And their race is not to blame for everything—good or bad—that happens in their lives.

No one can draw more out of things, books included, than he already knows. A man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access.