Thomas Arnold quotes

Thomas Arnold was an English educator and historian, best remembered as the headmaster of Rugby School. His educational reforms at Rugby greatly influenced the development of the British public school system. He became a leading figure in 19th-century educational thought and Christian moral teaching. Here are 10 of his quotes:

My object will be, if possible, to form Christian men, for Christian boys I can scarcely hope to make.

Thomas Arnold

As of rioting, the old Roman way of dealing with that is always the right one; flog the rank and file, and fling the ring-leaders from the Tarpeian rock.

Thomas Arnold

The distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these other, men are found seeking after God, while Christianity is God seeking after man.

Thomas Arnold

The difference between one man and another is not mere ability it is energy.

Thomas Arnold

It was from an old friend who thought he was dying. Anyway, he said, 'Life and death issues don't come along that often, thank God, so don't treat everything like it's life or death. Go easier.'

Thomas Arnold

[In many cases] there is no doubt that the shrine of a Muslim saint marks the site of some local cult which was practised on the spot long before the introduction of Islam.

Thomas Arnold

One's age should be tranquil, as childhood should be playful. Hard work at either extremity of life seems out of place. At midday the sun may burn, and men labor under it; but the morning and evening should be alike calm and cheerful.

Thomas Arnold

My highest ambition, and what I hope to do as far as I can, is to make my history the very reverse of Gibbon in this respect,-that whereas the whole spirit of his work, from its low morality, is hostile to religion, without speaking directly against it, so my greatest desire would be, in my History, by its high morals and its general tone, to be of use to the cause, without actually bringing it forward.

Thomas Arnold

I do not often venture to talk to you about public affairs, but surely you will agree with me in deprecating this war with China, which really seems to me so wicked as to be a national sin of the greatest possible magnitude, and it distresses me very deeply. Cannot any thing be done by petition or otherwise to awaken men's minds to the dreadful guilt we are incurring? I really do not remember, in any history, of a war undertaken with such combined injustice and baseness. Ordinary wars of conquest are to me far less wicked, than to go to war in order to maintain smuggling, and that smuggling consisting in the introduction of a demoralizing drug, which the government of China wishes to keep out, and which we, for the lucre of gain, want to introduce by force; and in this quarrel are going to burn and slay in the pride of our supposed superiority.

Thomas Arnold