All I have learned, I learned from books.

A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.

Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.

The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next.

A new book is like a friend that I have yet to meet

Every head should be cultivated.

I am absent altogether too much to be a suitable instructor for a law-student. When a man has reached the age that Mr. Widner has,and has already been doing for himself, my judgment is, that he reads the books for himself without an instructor. That is precisely the way I came to the law.

My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, literally without education.

That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance.