I was terrible in English. I couldn’t stand the subject. It seemed to me ridiculous to worry about whether you spelled something wrong or not, because English spelling is just a human convention – it has nothing to do with anything real, anything from nature.

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.

Howard Zinn was magical as a teacher. Witty, irreverent, and wise, he loved what he was teaching and clearly wanted his students to love it, also.

Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?

In France there are, I think, less than one per cent of people who are too skinny.

Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.

Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible.

Few people have the imagination for reality.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

Our teachers deserve better feedback.

It was very lucky for me as a writer that I studied the physical sciences rather than English. I wrote for my own amusement. There was no kindly English professor to tell me for my own good how awful my writing really was. And there was no professor with the power to order me what to read, either.

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

Only the educated are free.

I want a president who will teach our children that everyone in this country matters, a president who truly believes in the vision that our Founders put forth all those years ago that we are all created equal, each a beloved part of the great American story.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to decide. That’s the great thing about our country – we’re a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way.

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

I grew up cursing a lot. It felt natural. My parents told me to stop.

Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.

No trace of slavery ought to mix with the studies of the freeborn man. No study, pursued under compulsion, remains rooted in the memory.

I would impress upon your minds the fact that if you want to do a man justice, you should believe what a man says himself rather than what people say he says.

Some are reputed sick and some are not. It often happens that the sicker man is the nurse to the sounder.

If I cry, it’s because I’m very angry and I can’t do anything about it because I’ve run into a dead end. That’s when the tears would come down.

Do everything as in the eye of another.

I will meet my countrymen. I understand only one language: that they are my countrymen, they are my brothers. You may see with whatever colour you want; Modi will not go into that colour.

I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.

His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy.

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.

Words are loaded pistols.

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.

I went to a general store. They wouldn’t let me buy anything specifically.

When you walk into my classroom, I’m going to give it to you straight, just like in the real world, because that’s the only way to prepare you for the real world.

I don’t like L.A. It’s just not fun. I don’t know why, but I just don’t get it. You have to drive to get everywhere, and when it rains everybody freaks out.

I’m not really book-smart.

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

We are not to give credit to the many, who say that none ought to be educated but the free; but rather to the philosophers, who say that the well-educated alone are free.

If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.

The Gates Foundation has learned that two questions can predict how much kids learn: ‚Does your teacher use class time well?‘ and, ‚When you’re confused, does your teacher help you get straightened out?‘

Education is indoctrination if you’re white – subjugation if you’re black.

We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor – got her master’s with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honour for me.

America is becoming so educated that ignorance will be a novelty. I will belong to the select few.

Ultimately, education in its real sense is the pursuit of truth. It is an endless journey through knowledge and enlightenment.

Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?

We are often raised as dependents then given over to teachers. It’s experience and exploration that can transform us and lead to mastery.

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion.

What you see, but can’t see over is as good as infinite.

A lot of people think I’m a comedian.

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.

In the grip of a neurological disorder, I am fast losing control of words even as my relationship with the world has been reduced to them.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

I only see clearly what I remember.

You’ve really got to start hitting the books because it’s no joke out here.

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

I think we’re still in a muddle with our language, because once you get words and a spoken language it gets harder to communicate.

Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family.

I teach children to be winners.

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.