“Above all, you go to a great school for self-knowledge.”

Making self-understanding the highest purpose of education · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Education
• Knowledge
• Mind

“For taste, for discrimination, for mental courage, and for mental soberness.”

Summing up the qualities of mature and disciplined judgement · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Courage
• Education
• Wisdom

“For the art of entering quickly into another person's thoughts, for the habit of submitting to censure and refutation.”

Valuing intellectual sympathy alongside a willingness to accept correction · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Criticism
• Learning
• Mind

“But you go to a great school not so much for knowledge as for arts and habits.”

Presenting education as the formation of intellectual habits rather than simple fact-gathering · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Education
• Learning
• Skill

“Nor need you regret the hours you spent on much that is forgotten, for the shadow of lost knowledge at least protects you from many illusions.”

Suggesting that forgotten learning can still shape judgement and understanding · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Knowledge
• Learning
• Wisdom

“At school you are engaged not so much in acquiring knowledge as in making mental efforts under criticism.”

Distinguishing education from the mere accumulation of information · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Criticism
• Education
• Learning