20 Horace Mann Quotes From the Father of American Education

To learn more about the man that is considered the “Father of American Education”, read these Horace Mann quotes!

Horace Mann was an advocate for public education who lived from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century.

Having taken most of his early education from books in the library where he grew up, Mann went on to earn a law degree from Brown University.

After Mann went to college, he achieved many more accomplishments, including teaching at Brown University for a year and earning himself a seat in the Massachusetts state House of Representatives.

However, despite these accomplishments, education was still one of the most important issues to Mann.

This care for education, as well as the things he would go on to accomplish concerning education, is what earned Mann the nickname “Father of American Education.”

To learn more about the man that helped shape modern public education, check out the Horace Mann quotes below.

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Horace Mann Quotes On The Importance Of Education

We all know that education is very important, but it is easy to take for granted. Check out some quotes from a man that never took education for granted!

1. “Lost – yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.” – Horace Mann

2. “A human being is not attaining his full heights until he is educated.” – Horace Mann

3. “Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals.” – Horace Mann

4. “Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it.” – Horace Mann

5. “Jails and prisons are the complement of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more must you have of the former.” – Horace Mann

6. “Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves.” – Horace Mann

7. “Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person’s money as his time.” – Horace Mann

8. “A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.” – Horace Mann

9. “Schoolhouses are the republican line of fortifications.” – Horace Mann

10. “School is the cheapest police.” – Horace Mann

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Horace Mann Quotes On How Education Changes You

It is a great thing that we can change our future by simply putting in the work. People like Horace Mann made sure that education was available, now we just have to take advantage of that opportunity.

11. “A house without books is like a room without windows.” – Horace Mann

12. “Rule your mind or it will rule you.” – Horace Mann

13. “Whatever advice you give, be brief.” – Horace Mann

14. If you wish to write well, study the life about you–life in the public streets. – Horace Mann

15. “In trying to teach children a great deal in a short time, they are treated not as though the race they were to run was for life, but simply a three-mile heat.” – Horace Mann

16. “Observation–activity of both eyes and ears.” – Horace Mann

17. “Children learn to read by being in the presence of books.” – Horace Mann

18. “Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.” – Horace Mann

19. “The love of knowledge comes with reading and grows upon it.” – Horace Mann

20. “Give me a house furnished with books rather than furniture! Both, if you can, but books at any rate!” – Horace Mann

Horace Mann’s Legacy Impacts You

In 1838, Mann founded an educational journal called The Common School Journal.

This journal included the six main principles Mann thought mattered to public education.

Mann’s journal gained much attention and ended up changing the way many people viewed education.

Horace Mann, being the well-educated man he was, wrote many books over his life.

Some of the books he published included Letters on Education, On the Art of Teaching, Slavery, Letters and Speeches, and many other books he authored that were published during his lifetime.

In addition, a few other books of Mann’s words were published by editors after his death.

After reading the Horace Mann quotes we know what Horace Mann stood for and was passionate about.

What will your legacy be?

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