Mark Twain

Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be brought – by force of circumstances, not argument – to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.

Let us endeavor to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

Of all God’s creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with a cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

Switzerland is simply a large, lumpy, solid rock with a thin skin of grass stretched over it.

Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the highest return.

Each year more than 100,000 high school graduates, with proved ability, do not enter college because they cannot afford it. And if we cannot educate today’s youth, what will we do in 1970 when elementary enrollment will be 5 million greater than 1960? And high school enrollment will rise by 5 million. College enrollment will increase by more than 3 million.

Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.

I went to college on an art scholarship at the American Academy of Art, but the education comes from being passionate about objects, spaces, colors and the way they affect your senses.

I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.

Sometimes you get educated by being really bothered by things and you have to educate yourself on how to respond.

A man’s college and university degrees mean nothing to me until I see what he is able to do with them.

… because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college.

One of the things that make community colleges so special is they do not pick and choose their students – they work with all students.

For profit higher education is today a booming industry feeding on the student loans handed out to the desperate.

As a community college professor for over twenty years, I’ve seen the determination, resilience and dedication of countless students. Regardless of circumstances, they show up. They work hard. They believe anything is possible.

Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave.

School reports were always pretty bad. I never ever did my homework. I always turned up for lessons as I liked my teachers but my report said I didn’t try very hard.

My first task is to help students reject 18 years of poor learning that teaches them that knowledge is a product rather than a process.