Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.

Action is limited and relative. Unlimited and absolute is the vision of him who sits at ease and watches, who walks in loneliness and dreams.

With an evening coat and a white tie, anybody, even a stockbroker, can gain a reputation for being civilized.

Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness.

Duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does one's self.

Children have a natural antipathy to books- handicraft should be the basis of education. Boys and girls should be taught to use their hands to make something, and they would be less apt to destroy and be mischievous.

If you meet at dinner a man who has spent his life in educating himself... you rise from table richer, and conscious that a high ideal has for a moment touched and sanctifed your days. But oh! to sit next a man who spent his life in trying to educate others! What a dreadful experience that is! How appalling is that ignorance which is the inevitable result of the fatal habit of imparting opinions!

Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching-that is really what our enthusiasm for education has come to.

Genius lasts longer than Beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to overeducate ourselves.

The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.