Republics, one after another . . . have perished from a want of intelligence and virtue in the masses of the people. . . .
Interpretation
The survival of republics depends on the intelligence and virtue of their citizens.
Horace Mann emphasizes the crucial role that the collective intelligence and moral integrity of the populace play in the sustainability of democratic governments. When citizens lack understanding and ethical standards, the foundation of the republic weakens, leading to its decline and eventual collapse. This quote serves as a reminder of the responsibility each individual holds in maintaining a functional and resilient society.
In practice
In a speech about civic responsibility, one could cite this quote to encourage informed voting.
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.
Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out.
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge. The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
It is almost as presumptuous to think you can do nothing as to think you can do everything.
You can't be hesitant about who you are.
Wasting time is worse than death, because death separates you from this world whereas wasting time separates you from Allah
You must have a place to which you can go in your heart, your mind, or your house, almost every day, where you do not owe anyone and where no one owes you - a place that simply allows for the blossoming of something new and promising.
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