“There can be no ‘graduated exercises in drawing’ leading up to an artistic creation. That goal can be attained only through the development of mechanical technique and through the freedom of the spirit.”

The selfsame procedure which zoology, a branch of the natural sciences, applies to the study of animals, anthropology must apply to the study of man; and by doing so, it enrolls itself as a science in the field of nature.

One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.

The teacher, in short, can use reading to introduce her pupils to the most varied subjects; and the moment they have been thus started, they can go on to any limit guided by the single passion for reading.

Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.

The greatest sign of success for a teacher… is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’

If intelligence is the triumph of life, the spoken word is the marvellous means by which this intelligence is manifested.

The acquisitions he has made are such that we can say the child who enters school at three is an old man.

Books are mute as far as sound is concerned. It follows that reading aloud is a combination of two distinct operations, of two ‘languages.’ It is something far more complex than speaking and reading taken separately by themselves.

If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.

There is need to realize the value of work in all its forms whether manual or intellectual, to be called ‘mate,’ to have sympathetic understanding of all forms of activity.

There are two ‘faiths’ which can uphold humans: faith in God and faith in oneself. And these two faiths should exist side by side: the first belongs to one’s inner life, the second to one’s life in society.

Temptation, if it is not to conquer, must not fall like a bomb against another bomb of instantaneous moral explosions, but against the strong walls of an impregnable fortress strongly built up, stone by stone, beginning at that distant day when the foundations were first laid.

An unconscious mind can be full of intelligence. One will find this type of intelligence in every being, and every insect has it.

Moral Education is the source of that spiritual equilibrium on which everything else depends and which may be compared to that physical equilibrium or sense of balance, without which it is impossible to stand upright or to move into any other position.

Woman was always the custodian of human sentiment, morality and honour, and in these respects, man always has yielded woman the palm.

It is surprising to notice that even from the earliest age, man finds the greatest satisfaction in feeling independent. The exalting feeling of being sufficient to oneself comes as a revelation.

Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort.

That’s the fine balance of a fiction writer…to be able to give your characters enough freedom to surprise you and yet still maintain some kind of artistic control.

We don’t fight about music. We don’t fight about artistic direction.

Artistic accounts involve severe abbreviations of what reality will force upon us.

Our photographs are filthier and our stories are more disgusting. We make no effort to be artistic.

There was something to satiate my desire to be artistic and creative, especially when it wasn’t in the way I originally thought it was going to be.

If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it’s a human need.

I never thought that the music called “jazz” was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a museum thing locked under glass like all the other dead things that were once considered artistic.