Horace Mann
Horace Mann
Horace Mannwas an American politician and educational reformer. A Whig devoted to promoting speedy modernization, he served in the Massachusetts State legislature. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education since its creation, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Historian Ellwood P. Cubberley asserts:...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth4 May 1796
CityFranklin, MA
CountryUnited States of America
Above all, let the poor hang up the amulet of temperance in their homes.
They who set an example make a highway. Others follow the example, because it is easier to travel on a highway than over untrodden grounds.
Biography, especially of the great and good, who have risen by their own exertions to eminence and usefulness, is an inspiring and ennobling study. Its direct tendency is to reproduce the excellence it records.
Had I the power, I would scatter libraries over the whole land, as the sower sows his wheat-field.
A teacher should, above all things, first induce a desire in the pupil for the acquisition he wishes to impart.
So, in the infinitely nobler battle in which you are engaged against error and wrong, if ever repulsed or stricken down, may you always be solaced and cheered by the exulting cry of triumph over some abuse in Church or State, some vice or folly in society, some false opinion or cruelty or guilt which you have overcome! And I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
Give me a house furnished with books rather than furniture! Both, if you can, but books at any rate!
Time is a seedfield; in youth we sow it with causes; in after life we reap the harvest of effects.
It is well when the wise and the learned discover new truths; but how much better to diffuse the truths already discovered amongst the multitudes. Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power; and while a philosopher is discovering one new truth, millions of truths may be propagated amongst the people.... The whole land must be watered with the streams of knowledge.
If evil is inevitable, how are the wicked accountable? Nay, why do we call men wicked at all? Evil is inevitable, but is also remediable.
Avoid witticisms at the expense of others.
It would be more honourable to our distinguished ancestors to praise them in words less, but in deeds to imitate them more.