Keep one thing in view forever- the truth; and if you do this, though it may seem to lead you away from the opinion of men, it will assuredly conduct you to the throne of God.
Interpretation
Always prioritize truth, even if it distances you from others' opinions, as it leads to a higher understanding.
Horace Mann emphasizes the importance of truth as a guiding principle in life. He suggests that while the pursuit of truth may cause one to diverge from popular opinion or societal norms, it ultimately leads to a deeper connection with the divine or a more profound understanding of existence. This quote highlights the courage it takes to follow one's convictions and the ultimate rewards of being truthful.
In practice
During a public speech about personal values, one might say, 'As Horace Mann put it, we should keep the truth in view forever.'
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.
We are all of us obliged, if we are to make reality endurable, to nurse a few little follies in ourselves.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
Welcome every experience the looms of fate may weave for you.
Some of the animals outsee man, outsmell him, outhear him, outrun him, outswim him, because their lives depend more upon these special powers than his does; but he can outwit them all because he has the resourcefulness of reason and is at home in many different fields.
No experience is a cause of success or failure. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences, so-called trauma - but we make out of them just what suits our purposes.
As I swept the last bit of dust, I made a covenant with myself: I will accept. Whatever will be, will be. I have a life to lead. I recalled words a friend had told me, the philosophy of her faith. "Life is a journey and a struggle," she had said. "We cannot control it, but we can make the best of any situation." I was indeed in quite a situation. It was up to me to make the best of it.
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