The education of youth, an employment of more consequence than making laws and preaching the gospel, because it lays the foundation on which both law and gospel rest for success.
Noah WebsterRead
It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education should instill knowledge and values in young people, fostering a sense of virtue and patriotism.
Noah Webster emphasizes the critical importance of education in shaping the minds of American youth. He advocates for educational systems that not only impart scientific knowledge but also instill virtues such as liberty and patriotism, which are essential for nurturing informed and responsible citizens who are deeply connected to their country and its governance principles.
Themes
EducationVirtueLibertyPatriotismYouth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of educational reform in schools.
More from Noah Webster
All quotes βThe virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities, and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.
Noah WebsterRead
In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate-look to his character.
Noah WebsterRead
Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground
Noah WebsterRead
Nothing has a greater tendency to lessen the reverence which mankind ought to have for the Supreme Being, than a careless repetition of his name upon every trifling occasion . . . . To prevent this profanation, such passages are selected from scripture, as contain some important precepts of morality and religion, in which that sacred name is seldom mentioned. Let sacred things be appropriated to sacred purposes.
Noah WebsterRead
To exterminate our popular vices is a work of far more importance to the character and happiness of our citizens than any other improvements in our system of education.
Noah WebsterRead
Similar quotes
The object of universities is not to make skillful lawyers, physicians or engineers. It is to make capable and cultivated human beings
John Stuart MillRead
I had never seen a white teacher before, but Mrs. Henry was the nicest teacher I ever had.
Ruby BridgesRead
There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.
Marcel ProustRead
He continues to teach because it provides him with a livelihood; also because it teaches him humility, brings it home to him who he is in the world. The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing.
J. M. CoetzeeRead
I think that a lot of people in all walks of life have the impression, of course, that, 'I specialize in something. I can't - I don't have the time to read other things. I'll just go to pure entertainment when I'm relaxing, and then I'll come back to my pure specialty.' That produces - that attitude produces idiot savants, unfortunately.
Robert J. ShillerRead
In the early 1970s in Atlanta, I attended what had formerly been an all-white school but had become a black school after integration and white flight. Perhaps because of this, the teachers created a curriculum that included a focus on African American literature and history year-round, not just in February.
Natasha TretheweyRead