[W]e ... know very well that we never learn unless we like our lesson, and never behave ourselves unless inspired by precept and example. The history… - Agnes Repplier

[W]hy should our self-appointed instructors assume that because we do not chatter about a thing, we have never heard of it?

Had the Pilgrim Fathers been met on Plymouth Rock by immigration officials; had their children been placed immediately in good free schools, and given the care of doctors, dentists, and nurses; had they found themselves in infinitely better circumstances than they had ever enjoyed in England, indulging in undreamed-of luxuries, and taught by kind-hearted philanthropists,—what pioneer virtues would they have developed, what sons would they have bred, what honours would history have accorded them? If our early settlers were masterful, they earned the right to mastery, and the price they paid for it was endurance. To the sacrifices which they made, to their high courage and heroic labours, we owe law, liberty, and well-being.

People who pin their faith to a catchword never feel the necessity of understanding anything.