The great object of Education should be commensurate with the object of life. It should be a moral one; to teach self-trust: to inspire the youthful man with an interest in himself; with a curiosity touching his own nature; to acquaint him with the resources of his mind, and to teach him that there is all his strength.
Interpretation
Education should focus on moral development and self-trust, aligning with the purpose of life.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes that education should not only be about acquiring knowledge but also about fostering moral values and self-awareness. He argues that true education inspires individuals to trust themselves, explore their own potential, and understand their inner strengths, thereby linking the ultimate goals of education with the broader objectives of life itself.
In practice
In a graduation speech, to inspire students to see the value of self-discovery in their education.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.
Freedom begins with what we teach our children. That is why Jews became a people whose passion is education, whose heroes are teachers and whose citadels are schools.
God be thanked for books; they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.
Only when the child is able to identify its own center with the center of the universe does education really begin.
If I can write a book that will help the world make a little more sense to a teen, then that's why I was put on the planet.
I do think imagination is enormously valuable, and that children should be encouraged in their imagination. That's very true.
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