Quotes by Jacques Barzun

"Schools are not intended to moralize a wicked world, but to impart knowledge and develop intelligence, with only two social aims in mind: prepare to take on one's share in the world's work, and perhaps in addition, lend a hand in improving society, after schooling is done."

"The test and the use of man's education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind."

"Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about the past are a form of injustice."

"If it were possible to talk to the unborn, one could never explain to them how it feels to be alive, for life is washed in the speechless real."

"Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions."

"It seems a long time since the morning mail could be called correspondence."

"Since it is seldom clear whether intellectual activity denotes a superior mode of being or a vital deficiency, opinion swings between considering intellect a privilege and seeing it as a handicap."