I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
James Russell LowellRead
The better part of every man's education is that which he gives himself.
Interpretation
Self-education is crucial to personal growth and knowledge.
This quote emphasizes the importance of self-directed learning and personal initiative in education. While formal education provides a foundation, it is the knowledge and experiences an individual actively seeks out that truly enrich their understanding and development.
In practice
During a commencement speech to inspire graduates about lifelong learning.
I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.
Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.
When you meet a head of state, and you say, 'What is your most precious natural resource?' they will not say children at first, and then when you say, 'children,' they will pretty quickly agree with you.
There needs to be a lot more emphasis on what a child CAN do, instead of what he cannot do.
Offense is not equal opportunity
It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.
We all know that there are these exemplars who can take the toughest students, and they'll teach them two-and-a-half years of math in a single year.
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