Amos Bronson Alcott Quotes - Page 2

Observation more than books and experience more than persons, are the prime educators.

Strengthen me by sympathizing with my strength, not my weakness.

Man must have some recognized stake in society and affairs to knit him lovingly to his kind, or he is wont to revenge himself for wrongs real or imagined.

Divination seems heightened and raised to its highest power in woman.

Truth is inclusive of all the virtues, is older than sects and schools, and, like charity, more ancient than mankind.

There is virtue in country houses, in gardens and orchards, in fields, streams and groves, in rustic recreations and plain manners, that neither cities nor universities enjoy.

No one is promiscuous in his way of dying. A man who has decided to hang himself will never jump in front of a train.

Memory marks the horizon of our consciousness, imagination its zenith.

Without a mythology, faith is impersonal and heartless.

Time is one's best friend, teaching best of all the wisdom of silence.

Children are illuminated text-books, breviaries of doctrine, living bodies of divinity, open always and inviting their elders to peruse the characters inscribed on the lovely leaves.

Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine.

Success is sweet and sweeter if long delayed and gotten through many struggles and defeats.

A state, a community, caring first for all its children, providing amply for their spiritual as for their temporal well-being, has organized the primitive Eden.

Books are the most mannerly of companions, accessible at all times, in all moods, frankly declaring the author's mind, without offense.

Cleanse the fountain if you would purify the streams.

Enthusiasm imparts itself magnetically and fuses all into one happy and harmonious unity of feeling and sentiment.

Civilization degrades the many to exalt the few.

That is a good book which is opened with expectation, and closed with delight and profit.

While one finds company in himself and his pursuits, he cannot feel old, no matter what his years may be.

All unrest is but the struggle of the soul to reassure herself of her inborn immortality.

Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps.

One does not see his thought distinctly till it is reflected in the image of another's.

Civilization degrades many in order to exalt the few.

Many can argue - not many converse.