To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is ... the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself and enlarges the sphere of existence.

And those who cherished the fear of God and lived in harmony with his will continued to increase in knowledge and wisdom throughout their life.

You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have. Education was the gateway to opportunity for me. It was the gateway for Michelle. And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life.

Reverence was the proper attitude of a small and curious human being in a vast and fascinating world of experience. This world included people and places as well as things.

Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

If thou wilt receive profit, read with humility, simplicity and faith, and seek not at any time the fame of being learned.

Training- training is everything; training is all there is to a person. We speak of nature; it is folly; there is no such thing as nature; what we call by that misleading name is merely heredity and training. We have no thoughts of our own, no opinions of our own; they are transmitted to us, trained into us.

Presently a serpent sought them out privately, and came to them walking upright, which was the way of serpents in those days. The serpent said the forbidden fruit would store their vacant minds with knowledge. So they ate it, which was quite natural, for man is so made that he eagerly wants to know; whereas the priest, like God, whose imitator and representative he is, has made it his business from the beginning to keep him from knowing any useful thing.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

And now and then his mind reverted to his treatment by those rude Christ's Hospital Boys, and he said, When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teaching out of books; for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved and the heart. I will keep this diligently in my remembrance, that this day's lesson be not lost upon me, and my people suffer thereby; for learning softeneth the heart and breedeth gentleness and charity.