Richard Mitchell Born : April 26, 1929 Died : December 27, 2002 Browse All Authors Top 27 quotes by Richard Mitchell Training is a good dog, a constant companion and an utterly loyal and devoted friend, and everyone should have one. Education is a nagging counselor. And, I am convinced, everyone does have one. It happens, however, that some nagging counselors have grown strong by a certain kind of nourishment. Others are weak and puny, even infantile, having never been nourished at all. Richard Mitchell strong should-have dog Far from failing in its intended task, our educational system is in fact succeeding magnificently, because its aim is to keep the American people thoughtless enough to go on supporting the system. Richard Mitchell educational america school People who cannot put strings of sentences together in good order cannot think. An educational system that does not teach the technology of writing is preventing thought. Richard Mitchell educational technology writing You can shoot the tiger, or stay out of his way, but you cannot pronounce him a vegetarian. Richard Mitchell vegetarian society way Thought control, like birth control, is best undertaken as long as possible before the fact. Richard Mitchell birth-control long facts An education that does not teach clear, coherent writing cannot provide our world with thoughtful adults; it gives us instead, at the best, clever children of all ages. Richard Mitchell clever writing children In a government institution, there is only one area in which problems are taken seriously, and that is the political. Many of the strange things done in American educationism suddenly become perfectly understandable when we see them not as educational methods but as political maneuvers. We must understand illiteracy, therefore, the root of ignorance and thoughtlessness, as not some inadvertent failure to accomplish what was intended but simply a political arrangement of great value to somebody. Richard Mitchell educational ignorance taken If you should prefer to understand that children are those human beings who have not yet found the grasp of their own minds, then the task you have given yourself, that task of rearing a child wisely and well, is suddenly transformed from indoctrination to education, in its truest sense, and made not only possible but even likely--provided, to be sure, one little prerequisite, which is that you are not a child, that you have come into the grasp of your mind. Richard Mitchell tasks mind children We should...be able to see that our interest would be best served not by asking the state to promulgate our values but by forbidding the state to promulgate any values at all. If the state can espouse some value that we love, it can, with equal justice, espouse others we do not love. Richard Mitchell asking would-be justice Here is a truth that most teachers will not tell you, even if they know it: Good training is a continual friend and a solace; it helps you now, and assures you of help in the future. Good education is a continual pain in the neck, and assures you always of more of the same. Richard Mitchell training pain teacher If you cannot be the master of your language, you must be its slave. If you cannot examine your thoughts, you have no choice but to think them, however silly they may be. Richard Mitchell choices silly thinking Educationists are entertaining. We can always find a good laugh in their prose, with its special, ludicrous combination of ignorance and pretentiousness. Richard Mitchell ignorance special laughing Where once a tyrant had to wish that his subjects had but one common neck that he might strangle them all at once, all he has to do now is to 'educate the people' so that they will have but one common mind to delude. Richard Mitchell tyrants people school Rousseau had it backwards. We are NOT born free. We are born in the chains of the random and the reflexive, and are ignorant and unreasonable by simple nature. We must learn to be free, to organize the random and detect the reflexive, to acquire the knowledge of particulars and the powers of reason. The examined life is impossible if we cannot examine, order, classify, define, distinguish, always in minute particulars. Richard Mitchell wisdom simple order When we find ourselves wondering about the meaning of conditions and events, its always useful to ask, who profits? Richard Mitchell events society wonder Education, I am convinced, must be nothing more than this: The journey toward the limits of Reason, if any there be. Richard Mitchell limits journey reason There is no other way to judge the work of a mind except through its words. Richard Mitchell judging mind way Who speaks reason to his fellow man bestows it upon them. Richard Mitchell speak fellow-man men Some minds, at some point, discover that they can not make sense of their own predications without attention to grammar, although they do not ordinarily think of what they are doing as an exercise in grammar. Richard Mitchell mind exercise thinking Clear language engenders clear thought, and clear thought is the most important benefit of education. Richard Mitchell benefits language important
