I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life

It is not enough for the teacher to love the child. She must first love and understand the universe. She must prepare herself, and truly work at it.

A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.

If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.

Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.

The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

The man who is fond of books is usually a man of lofty thought, and elevated opinions.

Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.

Investigate, educate and organize.

Just when I thought there wasn't room enough for another thought in my head, I had this great idea.

Know what you are talking about.

To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.

Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.