Amos Bronson Alcott quotes

Amos Bronson Alcott was an American teacher, writer, and philosopher, recognized as a key figure in the Transcendentalist movement. His innovative ideas on education emphasized self-expression, intuition, and child-centered learning. He inspired future generations of educators and was the father of the novelist Louisa May Alcott. Here are 44 of his quotes:

The less routine the more life. (Amos Bronson Alcott)
A true teacher defends his students against his own personal influences. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Our friends interpret the world and ourselves to us, if we take them tenderly and truly. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Prudence is the footprint of Wisdom. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-distrust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciple. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Success is sweet and sweeter if long delayed and gotten through many struggles and defeats. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Cruelty stares at me from the butcher's face. I tread amidst carcasses. I am in the presence of the slain. The death-set eyes of beasts peer at me and accuse me of belonging to the race of murderers. Quartered, disembowelled creatures on suspended hooks plead with me. I feel myself dispossessed of the divinity. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Our ideals are our better selves. (Amos Bronson Alcott)
We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Civilization degrades the many to exalt the few. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
While one finds company in himself and his pursuits, he cannot feel old, no matter what his years may be. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
That is a good book which is opened with expectation, and closed with delight and profit. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Thought means life, since those who do not think so do not live in any high or real sense. Thinking makes the man. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Where there is a mother in the home, matters go well. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Strengthen me by sympathizing with my strength, not my weakness. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Our notion of the perfect society embraces the family as its center and ornament, and this paradise is not secure until children appear to animate and complete the picture. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
First find the man in yourself if you will inspire manliness in others. (Amos Bronson Alcott)
Who speaks to the instincts speaks to the deepest in mankind, and finds the readiest response. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Who knows, the mind has the key to all things besides. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent that is to triumph over old age. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott
Conceive of slaughter and flesh-eating in Eden. View quote
Amos Bronson Alcott