Amos Bronson Alcott Quotes
Truth is inclusive of all the virtues, is older than sects and schools, and, like charity, more ancient than mankind.
One's life should be sufficiently interesting to furnish entertainment in the record.
Education may work wonders as well in warping the genius of individuals as in seconding it.
Easy come, easy go... "Achieve-everything-while-doing-nothing" schemes don't work, they are just not logical
Man is a living lie--a bitter jest Upon himself--a conscious grain of sand Lost in a desert of unconsciousness.
The passions refuse to be organized on a basis of their own; hostile to personal freedom and one another, they rush precipitately into anarchy and mob rule.
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.
Genius has oftenest been the pariah of his time, the unhoused god whom none cared for, unnamed till they whom he first promoted, enriched and honored, found it honorable to own their benefactor.
Travel makes all men countrymen, makes people noblemen and kings, every man tasting of liberty and dominion.
A friendship formed in childhood, in youth,--by happy accident at any stage of rising manhood,--becomes the genius that rules the rest of life.
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.
Whatsoever stirs the stagnant currents, setting these flowing in wholesome directions, promotes brisk spirits and productive thinking. The less of routine, the more of life.
Sympathy wanting, all is wanting; its personal magnetism is the conductor of the sacred spark that lights our atoms, puts us m human communion, and gives us to company, conversation, and ourselves.
Pleasure, that immortal essence, the beauteous bead sparkling in the cup, effervesces soon and subsides.
Our favorites are few; since only what rises from the heart reaches it, being caught and carried on the tongues of men wheresoever love and letters journey.
Evil is retributive: every trespass slips fetters on the will, holds the soul in durance till contrition and repentance restore it to liberty.
Of gifts, there seems none more becoming to offer a friend than a beautiful book.
An age deficient in idealism has ever been one of immorality and superficial attainment, since without the sense of ideas, nobility of character becomes of rare attainment, if possible.
The mind is fast emancipating itself from the dominion of man and of matter. It has let loose fearful forces on the world.
Cities with all their advantages have something hostile to liberal learning, the seductions are so subtle and accost the senses so openly on all sides.
A good book is fruitful of other books; it perpetuates its fame from age to age, and makes eras in the lives of its readers.
A check on itself, evil subserves the economies of good, as it were a condiment to give relish to good.
My favorite books have a personality and complexion as distinctly drawn as if the author's portrait were framed into the paragraphs and smiled upon me as I read his illustrated pages.
Right is the royal ruler alone; and he who rules with least restraint comes nearest to empire.
The best teachers don't allow their own personal views to influence their teaching.
The books that charmed us in youth recall the delight ever afterwards; we are hardly persuaded there are any like them, any deserving our equal affections.
Books are the most mannerly of companions accessible at all times in all moods frankly declaring the author's mind without offense.
