Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.
Interpretation
Education serves as a powerful tool to level the playing field among individuals and society.
Horace Mann emphasizes the transformative power of education in society, arguing that it is the most effective means of promoting equality among people, regardless of their background. He suggests that education acts as a balancing force within the social system, enabling individuals to rise above their circumstances and fostering a more just and equitable society.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech at a graduation ceremony to inspire new graduates about the importance of their education.
Under the Providence of God, our means of education are the grand machinery by which the 'raw material' of human nature can be worked up into inventors and discoverers, into skilled artisans and scientific farmers, into scholars and jurists, into the founders of benevolent institutions, and the great expounders of ethical and theological science.
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
There may be frugality which is not economy. A community, that withholds the means of education from its children, withholds the bread of life and starves their souls.
Let us labor for that larger comprehension of truth, and that more thorough repudiation of error, which shall make the history of mankind a series of ascending developments.
Great knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been well instructed, but still greater knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been neglected.
Virtue is an angel, but she is a blind one, and must ask Knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal.
Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but normally even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form. More than any other single invention writing has transformed human consciousness.
A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful. Even as a kid, my sister, who was the eldest, brought books home for me, and I think I spent more time sniffing and touching them than reading. I just remember the joy of the book, the beauty of the binding. The smelling of the interior. Happy.
Readers, after all, are making the world with you. You give them the materials, but it's the readers who build that world in their own minds.
Books are masters who instruct us without rods or ferules, without words or anger, without bread or money. _x000D_ If you approach them, they are not asleep; If you seek them, they do not hide; _x000D_ If you blunder, they do not scold; if you are ignorant, they do not laugh at you.
I believe in women. I desire . . . to do those things that would advance women in moral and spiritual, as well as educational work.
Every film teaches you something; every experience on every film set with every co-star teaches you something. You learn something new. I think the challenge is to keep working harder and doing better.
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