Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) was an English educationalist and intellectual. He had a profound and enduring influence on the development of public school education in England. He was the father of the poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold.
Born in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, Arnold was educated at Winchester and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
As headmaster of Rugby School 1828–41, Arnold elevated his school to the rank of a great public school. It became the prototype for other English public schools and boarding schools all over the Western world.
Arnold broadened its curriculum, improved living conditions, raised the status of the masters, and launched many administrative reforms. He implemented a “prefect system” in which the older pupils served as house overseers to keep discipline among the younger boys.
Arnold’s weekly sermons were aimed at improving the character of the pupils and imbuing them with a sense of duty to the community. Arnold authored six volumes of sermons, an edition of Thucydides (1845,) and a History of Rome (3 vols., 1838–43.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Thomas Arnold
Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at mid-day.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Age, Aging
My object will be, if possible, to form Christian men, for Christian boys I can scarcely hope to make.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Teaching, Teachers
All calm inquiry conducted among those who have their main principles of judgment in common, leads, if not to an approximation of views, yet, at least, to an increase of sympathy.
—Thomas Arnold
Rather than have it the principal thing in my son’s mind, I would gladly have him think that the sun went round the earth, and that the stars were so many spangles set in the bright blue firmament.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Science, Scientists
What we must look for here is, firstly, religious and moral principles; secondly, gentlemanly conduct; thirdly, intellectual ability.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Education, School
Differences of opinion give me but little concern; but it is a real pleasure to be brought into communication with any one who is in earnest, and who really look to God’s will as his standard of right and wrong, and judges of actions according to their greater or less conformity.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: God, Opinion
The difference between one man and another is not mere ability … it is energy.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Energy, Enthusiasm, Ability
One’s age should be tranquil, as childhood should be playful. Hard work at either extremity of life seems out of place. At midday the sun may burn, and men labor under it; but the morning and evening should be alike calm and cheerful.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Aging, Age
The distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these others, men are found seeking after God, while Christianity is God seeking after men.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Christianity
Real knowledge, like everything else of the highest value, is not to be obtained easily. It must be worked for, studied for, thought for, and, more than all, it must be prayed for.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Knowledge
Two things we ought to learn from history: one, that we are not in ourselves superior to our fathers; another, that we are shamefully and monstrously inferior to them, if we do not advance beyond them.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: History
Real knowledge, like everything else of value, is not to be obtained easily. It must be worked for, studied for, thought for, and, more than all, must be prayed for.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Knowledge
I am well satisfied that if you let in but one little finger of tradition, you will have in the whole monster—horns and tail and all.
—Thomas Arnold
Topics: Tradition
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