The Pleasures of Life Quotes

“Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

“We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

“Our great mistake in education is, as it seems to me, the worship of book-learning–the confusion of instruction and education. We strain the memory instead of cultivating the mind. The children in our elementary schools are wearied by the mechanical act of writing, and the interminable intricacies of spelling; they are oppressed by columns of dates, by lists of kings and places, which convey no definite idea to their minds, and have no near relation to their daily wants and occupations; while in our public schools the same unfortunate results are produced by the weary monotony of Latin and Greek grammar. We ought to follow exactly the opposite course with children–to give them a wholesome variety of mental food, and endeavor to cultivate their tastes, rather than to fill their minds with dry facts. The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn. What does it matter if the pupil know a little more or a little less? A boy who leaves school knowing much, but hating his lessons, will soon have forgotten almost all he ever learned; while another who had acquired a thirst for knowledge, even if he had learned little, would soon teach himself more than the first ever knew.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

“If we are ever in doubt what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

“In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is wanting.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

“We profit little by books we do not enjoy.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

“I cannot, however, but think that the world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as the Happiness of Duty; for we ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only because to be happy ourselves is a most effectual contribution to the happiness of others.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

“When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

“If we succeed in giving the love of learning, the learning itself is sure to follow.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life

“A wise system of education will at least teach us how little man yet knows, how much he has still to learn.”
― John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life