John Adams on Graduation
1735–1826 United States
← All quotes by John Adams
5 quotes
Education makes a greater difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and brute.
A native of America who cannot read and write is as rare an appearance as a Jacobite or a Roman Catholic, that is, as rare as a comet or an earthquake.
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)
By my physical constitution I am but an ordinary man … Yet some great events, some cutting expressions, some mean hypocracies, have at times thrown this assemblage of sloth, sleep, and littleness into rage like a lion.
The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.
There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.
Misattributed