A private school has all the faults of a public school without any of its compensations.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
My plan of instruction is extremely simple and limited. They learn, on week-days, such coarse works as may fit them for servants. I allow of no writing for the poor. My object is not to make fanatics, but to train up the lower classes in habits of industry and piety.
—Hannah More
I was asked to memorize what I did not understand; and, my memory being so good, it refused to be insulted in that manner.
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) English Occultist, Mystic, Magician
A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.
—Vince Lombardi, Jr. (1913–70) American Football Player, Coach
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
You send your child to the schoolmaster, but ’tis the schoolboys who educate him.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
You can’t learn in school what the world is going to do next year.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
My education was dismal. I went to a series of schools for mentally disturbed teachers
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Those who get lost on the way to school will never find their way through life
—German Proverb
You can acquire a lot of knowledge without ever going to school.
—William Glasser (1925–2013) American Psychiatrist, Author, Speaker
There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.
—William Glasser (1925–2013) American Psychiatrist, Author, Speaker
Some people unable to go to school were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
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) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
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
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
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
School divides life into two segments, which are increasingly of comparable length. As much as anything else, schooling implies custodial care for persons who are declared undesirable elsewhere by the simple fact that a school has been built to serve them.
—Ivan Illich (1926–2002) Austrian Philosopher, Theologian
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
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.
—Tom Bodett (b.1955) American Humorist, Radio Host
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
You send a boy to school in order to make friends – the right sort.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
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
The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
Leave a Reply