Americanism is a question of principle, of idealism, of character. It is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.
Theodore RooseveltRead
A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education can empower individuals to achieve greater ambitions, but it may also lead to greater ethical dilemmas.
This quote by Theodore Roosevelt reflects the dual nature of education—it can elevate a person’s capabilities to achieve great things, but it can also provide the means to exploit and take advantage of systems and institutions. Roosevelt suggests that while knowledge can lead to impressive accomplishments, it can also foster unethical behavior if one's values are not grounded.
Themes
EducationEthicsAmbitionPowerKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an educational seminar to discuss the moral implications of knowledge.
More from Theodore Roosevelt
All quotes →It tires me to talk to rich men. You expect a man of millions, the head of a great industry, to be a man worthhearing; but as a rule they don't know anything outside their own business.
Theodore RooseveltRead
No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned.
Theodore RooseveltRead
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
Theodore RooseveltRead
Conservation means development as much as it does protection._x000D_ _x000D_ A man's usefulness depends upon his living up to his ideals insofar as he can.
Theodore RooseveltRead
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
Theodore RooseveltRead
Similar quotes
Literature - novels, plays, and poems - can have an uncanny dual life, where they simultaneously represent something eternal and something historical, and this is often how they are taught in school.
Jane SmileyRead
For among other things he had been counseled to bring me to love knowledge and duty by my own choice, without forcing my will, and to educate my soul entirely through gentleness and freedom.
Michel De MontaigneRead
When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one's brain becomes encumbered with a lot of bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use.
Helen KellerRead
We think scientific literacy flows out of how many science facts can you recite rather than how was your brain wired for thinking. And it's the brain wiring that I'm more interested in rather than the facts that come out of the curriculum or the lesson plan that's been proposed.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
The purpose of adult education is to help them to learn, not to teach them all you know and thus stop them from learning.
Carl RogersRead
It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time - for we are bound by that - but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time.
T. S. EliotRead