The elementary school must assume as its sublime and most solemn responsibility the task of teaching every child in it to read. Any school that does not accomplish this has failed.
—William Bennett (b.1943) American Politician, Political Theorist, Government Official
Minerva House was “a finishing establishment for young ladies,” where some twenty girls of the ages from thirteen to nineteen inclusive, acquired a smattering of everything and a knowledge of nothing.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
The chief reason for going to school is to get the impression fixed for life that there is a book side for everything.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies, seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Of all cursed places under the sun, where the hungriest soul can hardly pick up a few grains of knowledge, a girls boarding-school is the worst. They are called finishing schools, and the name tells accurately what they are. They finish everything but imbecility and weakness, and that they cultivate. They are nicely adapted machines for experimenting on the question, “Into how little space a human being can be crushed?” I have seen some souls so compressed that they would have fitted into a small thimble, and found room to move there—wide room. A woman who has been for many years at one of those places carries the mark of the beast on her till she dies.
—Olive Schreiner (1855–1920) South African Writer, Feminist
You send your child to the schoolmaster, but ’tis the schoolboys who educate him.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.
—Vince Lombardi, Jr. (1913–70) American Football Player, Coach
Some people unable to go to school were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
You can acquire a lot of knowledge without ever going to school.
—William Glasser (b.1925) American Psychiatrist, Writer
What we must look for here is, firstly, religious and moral principles; secondly, gentlemanly conduct; thirdly, intellectual ability.
—Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) English Educationalist
No trace of slavery ought to mix with the studies of the freeborn man. No study, pursued under compulsion, remains rooted in the memory.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
You send a boy to school in order to make friends – the right sort.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Those who get lost on the way to school will never find their way through life
—German Proverb
My education was dismal. I went to a series of schools for mentally disturbed teachers
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
I have found it; I have discovered the cause of all the misfortunes which befell him. A public school, Joseph, was the cause of all the calamities which he afterwards suffered. Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Experience keeps a dear school; but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true, we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
That’s the public-school system all over. They may kick you out, but they never let you down.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
In the schoolroom her quick mind had taken readily that strong starch of unexplained rules and disconnected facts which saves ignorance from any painful sense of limpness.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Thank goodness I was never sent to school it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
—Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) British Children’s Author, Illustrator
Jails and prisons are the complement of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more you must have of the former.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A private school has all the faults of a public school without any of its compensations.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.
—William Glasser (b.1925) American Psychiatrist, Writer
Failure is a school in which the truth always grows strong.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer