Quotes by Gilbert Highet

“These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves.”

“A teacher must believe in the value and interest of his subject as a doctor believes in health.”

“Many people have played themselves to death. Many people have eaten and drunk themselves to death. Nobody ever thought himself to death.”

“What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those?”

“A good teacher is a determined person”

“The real duty of man is not to extend his power or multiply his wealth beyond his needs, but to enrich and enjoy his imperishable possession: his soul.”

“The mind never need stop growing. Indeed, one of the few experiences which never pall is the experience of watching ones own mind and how it produces new interests, responds to new stimuli, and develops new thoughts, apparently without effort and almost independently of ones own conscious control.”

“[B]y taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.”

“The aim of those who try to control thought is always the same. They find one single explanation of the world, one system of thought and action that will (they believe) cover everything; and then they try to impose that on all thinking people.”

“The relation between parents and children is essentially based on teaching”

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice... and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.

Shakespeares bitter play [Troilus and Cressida] is therefore a dramatization of a part of a translation into English of the French translation of a Latin imitation of an old French expansion of a Latin epitome of a Greek romance. (p. 55)

The relation between parents and children is essentially based on teaching.

A good teacher is a determined person.

A teacher must believe in the value and interest of his subject as a doctor believes in health.

What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those?