There is nothing so costly as ignorance.
Interpretation
Ignorance can lead to significant costs and consequences in life.
Horace Mann highlights the idea that ignorance, or lack of knowledge, is not just a personal disadvantage but also a costly one. It suggests that the absence of understanding can lead to poor decisions and missed opportunities, ultimately resulting in greater expenses—whether in terms of money, time, or lost potential. By emphasizing that ignorance is 'costly,' Mann advocates for the importance of education and awareness in personal and societal progress.
In practice
During a speech on the importance of education, I could say, 'As Horace Mann wisely stated, there is nothing so costly as ignorance.'
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.
In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.
School typically doesn't prepare young people for real life - unless their lives are spent following instructions and pleasing others. In my opinion, that's why so many students who succeed in school fail in life.
Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids' dreams too. Once in a while, that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes.
A well organized education should not be one which prepares students for a good remuneration alone. It should be one that can help and guide them towards acquiring clear thinking, a fruitful mind, and an elevated spirit.
When I teach writing, I have a mantra: 'Be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a second-rate version of another writer.'
One very common thing is that often very brilliant children stop working because they're praised so often that it's what they want to live as - brilliant - not as someone who ever makes mistakes. It really stunts their motivation.
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