Amos Bronson Alcott - Life Quotes

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The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-trust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciples. A noble artist, he has visions of excellence and revelations of beauty, which he has neither impersonated in character, nor embodied in words. His life and teachings are but studies for yet nobler ideals.

Amos Bronson Alcott
Thought means life, since those who do not think do not live in any high or real sense. Thinking makes the man.

Amos Bronson Alcott
Every noble life becomes a revelation of the spirit which the love and joy of mankind cannot let perish from remembrance.

Amos Bronson Alcott
A friendship formed in childhood, in youth, — by happy accident at any stage of rising manhood, — becomes the genius that rules the rest of life.

Amos Bronson Alcott
One's life should be sufficiently interesting to furnish entertainment in the record.

Amos Bronson Alcott
Ideas first and last: yet it is not till these are formulated and utilized that the devotees of the common sense discern their value and advantages. The idealist is the capitalist on whose resources multitudes are maintained life long. Ideas in the head set hands about their several tasks, thus carrying forward all human endeavors to their issues.

Amos Bronson Alcott
Time ripens the substance of a life as the seasons mellow and perfect its fruits. The best apples fall latest and keep longest.

Amos Bronson Alcott
Whatsoever stirs the stagnant currents, setting these flowing in wholesome directions, promotes brisk spirits and productive thinking. The less of routine, the more of life.

Amos Bronson Alcott
The history of books shows the humblest origin of some of the most valued, wrought as these were out of obscure materials by persons whose names thereafter became illustrious. The thumbed volumes, now so precious to thousands, were compiled from personal experiences and owe their interest to touches of inspiration of which the writer was less author than amanuensis, himself the voiced word of life for all times.

Amos Bronson Alcott
Enduring fame is ever posthumous. The orbs of virtue and genius seldom culminate during their terrestrial periods. Slow is the growth of great names, slow the procession of excellence into arts, institutions, life. Ages alone reflect their fulness of lustre. The great not only unseal, but create the organs by which they are to be seen. Neither Socrates nor Jesus is yet visible to the world.

Amos Bronson Alcott