There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
Herbert SpencerRead
Education has for its object the formation of character.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education aims to shape and develop a person's character.
In this quote, Herbert Spencer emphasizes that the true purpose of education extends beyond the acquisition of knowledge; it is fundamentally about shaping the character of individuals. Character formation involves instilling values, ethics, and critical thinking skills that guide a person's actions and decisions throughout life.
Themes
EducationCharacterDevelopmentValuesGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech, one might say 'As Herbert Spencer noted, education shapes our character.'
More from Herbert Spencer
All quotes βNo one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.
Herbert SpencerRead
That feelings of love and hate make rational judgments impossible in public affairs, as in private affairs, we can clearly enough see in others, though not so clearly in ourselves.
Herbert SpencerRead
Be it or be it not true that Man is shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, it is unquestionably true that Government is begotten of aggression, and by aggression.
Herbert SpencerRead
Organs, faculties, powers, capacities, or whatever else we call them; grow by use and diminish from disuse, it is inferred that they will continue to do so. And if this inference is unquestionable, then is the one above deduced from it-that humanity must in the end become completely adapted to its conditions-unquestionable also. Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.
Herbert SpencerRead
This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.
Herbert SpencerRead
Similar quotes
Access to quality education has enabled me to reach far beyond the Bangladeshi village I grew up in.
Muhammad YunusRead
If you are teaching Muslim sixth formers in a school, and you tell them they can't have their God and Darwin, there is a risk they will choose their God and be lost to science.
Martin ReesRead
Whoever educates himself and improves his own morals & character is superior to the man who tries to teach & train others.
Ali Ibn Abi TalibRead
Excellent teachers showered on to us like meteors: Biology teachers holding up human brains, English teachers inspiring us with a personal ideological fierceness about Tolstoy and Plato, Art teachers leading us through the slums of Boston, then back to the easel to hurl public school gouache with social awareness and fury.
Sylvia PlathRead
Like all those possessing a library, Aurelian was aware that he was guilty of not knowing his in its entirety.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
Libraries have had a long history of dealing with authoritarian organizations demanding reader records - who's read what - and this has led to people being rounded up and killed.
Brewster KahleRead