“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.”

— Joseph Addison, The Spectator, No. 215 (6 November 1711)

About Joseph Addison

1672 – 1719

English essayist, poet and politician, co-founder of 'The Spectator' and author of the tragedy 'Cato' (1713).

“And such a friendship ends not but with life.”

“'Tis not in mortals to command success, but we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it.”

“True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise.”

“The wisest man may be wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to-morrow than he is to-day.”

“Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.”

“It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things.”

“For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.”

“The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”

“It was subtle of God to learn Greek when he wished to become an author—and not to learn it better.”