"There is no academy on earth equal to a mother's reading to her child."
--Scudder

Art Credit: The Reading Lesson by Leon Augustin L'Hermitte

"Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."
--Marcus Aurelius

Art credit: A Walk by the River by Alfred Augustus Glendening, Jr.

"The substance of education is not a body of facts but of truth; not agility of mind, but richness of mind; not a knowledge of the physical aspects of the world only, but a sense of its wonderful beauty and variety."
--Hamilton Wright Mabie

Art credit: Girls Picking Anemones and Primulas by H.A. Brendekilde

"Poetry should be a friend
To soothe the cares,
and lift the thoughts of men."
--Keats

Art credit: Dante by Marie Spartali Stillman

"I have decided to go with love. Hate is too heavy a burden to bear."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Art Credit: Blind Christian by Michael Ancher

On reading good literature:

"How good it is sometimes to leave the crowded world, which is so hot about its trifles, and go into the company of these great souls which are so calm about the most momentous things!"
--Phillips Brooks

Art credit: A Thoughtful Reader by Frantisek Dvorak

"Our first aim must to make them feel, not to make them know; to make them love the beautiful thing, and then to keep that love through understanding."

--On Teaching Poetry

Art credit: The Orchard by Elizabeth Adela Forbes

Loveliness, magic, grace,
They are here! They are set in the world,
They abide; and the finest of souls
Hath not been thrill'd by them all,
Nor the dullest been dead to them quite.

--Matthew Arnold

Art credit: A Meeting on the Bridge by Emile Claus

"There is the moral of all human tales;
'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,
First freedom, and then Glory--when that fails,
Wealth, vice, corruption,--barbarism at last.
And History, will all her volumes vast,
Hath but one page..."

--Lord Byron

Barbarism: An offense against purity of style or language;
Ignorance of arts;
Want of learning;
Rudeness of manners, incivility, ferociousness,
A savage state of society
Brutality, cruelty

(Lest you think I'm pessimistic, I would say it's going to cycle around again and how fast we get to the next chapter depends on you and me!)

Art credit: The Old and the Young Sweden by August Malmstrom

This quote is on the back of Volume 3 of Catch the Vision. It's the prescriptive cure to what's ailing our country:

"There is only one way to improve the taste of a nation. It cannot be done in a hurry and it cannot be done by force. It can only be accomplished by exposing the people patiently to that which is truly 'good,' to that which is truly 'noble'..

"Try and persuade our children to make the good choice for themselves by exposing them just as much as possible to that which is a true product of divine inspiration and honest human craftmanship....

"In the end, those able to see and look for themselves will then make the right decisions and because they will do it on their own volition, it will be a lasting one"

--Hendrik Willem Van Loon

Art credit: Afternoon Amusements by von Bremen