If ever there was a cause, if ...

If ever there was a cause, if ever there can be a cause, worthy to be upheld by all of toil or sacrifice that the human heart can endure, it is the cause of Education. It has intrinsic and indestructible merits. It holds the welfare of mankind in its embrace, as the protecting arms of a mother hold her infant to her bosom. The very ignorance and selfishness which obstructs its path are the strongest arguments for its promotion, for it furnishes the only adequate means for their removal.
 Horace Mann

Quotes from the same author

When will society, like a mother, take care of all her children?
 Horace Mann
A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.
 Horace Mann
Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.
 Horace Mann
An ignorant man is always able to say yes or no immediately to any proposition. To a wise man, comparatively few things can be propounded which do not require a response with qualifications, with discriminations, with proportion.
 Horace Mann
After a child has arrived at the legal age for attending school,-whether he be the child of noble or of peasant,-the only two absolute grounds of exemption from attendance are sickness and death.
 Horace Mann