Quotes on Education

The educational process has been the subject of much comment by academics and writers. Their observations range from praise to cynicism, mostly the latter. Education is an easy target for criticism because its stated aims are often so nobly ambitious that they have little chance of being realized. It should give us pause that so many people who have made their mark in the world of ideas, who have been acknowledged leaders and innovators, have held formal education and educational institutions in low regard. We have collected here a variety of thought-provoking observations on education.
First, some definitions of education.

Education is...

One of the few things a person is willing to pay for and not get.

William Lowe Bryan (1860–1955) 10th president of Indiana University (1902 to 1937).

Hanging around until you've caught on.

Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) American poet.

One of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.

Bertrand A. Russell (1872-1970) English philosopher, mathematician, and writer.

Man's going forward from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty.

Kenneth G. Johnson (1922-2002) American educator, semanticist.

A form of self-delusion.

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American author, editor and printer.

[A process] which makes one rogue cleverer than another.

Oscar Wilde (1856-1900) Irish poet and dramatist.

The inculcation of the incomprehensible into the ignorant by the incompetent.

Josiah Charles Stamp (1880-1941) British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker.

[Education] consists mainly in what we have unlearned.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer.

Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught.

George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English statesman and author.

Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance.

Will Durant (1885-1981) U.S. author and historian.

A succession of eye-openers each involving the repudiation of some previously held belief.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British dramatist, critic, writer.

Education is a state-controlled manufactory of echoes.

Norman Douglas (1868-1952) British writer.

Education is the process of casting false pearls before real swine.

Prof. Irwin Edman (1896–1954) American philosopher and educator.