The delight of opening a new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth even to old age.

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling. But I must say I have great respect for the semi-colon; it's a useful little chap.

The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.

I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length.

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.

A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.

You can never be overdressed or overeducated.

Courage, conviction and confidence.

Any knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

I cannot live without books.

A child miseducated is a child lost.

Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.

Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.

It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.

The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention.

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.