We have lost confidence in reason because we have learned that man is chiefly a creature of habit and emotion. John Dewey More Quotes by John Dewey More Quotes From John Dewey Every serious-minded person knows that a large part of the effort required in moral discipline consists in the courage needed to acknowledge the unpleasant consequences of one's past and present acts. John Dewey effortdisciplinepast The routine of custom tends to deaden even scientific inquiry; it stands in the way of discovery and of the active scientific worker. For discovery and inquiry are synonymous as an occupation. Science is a pursuit, not a coming into possession of the immutable; new theories as points of view are more prized than discoveries that quantitatively increase the store on hand. John Dewey viewsdiscoverythinking There is nothing left worth preserving in the notions of unseen powers, controlling human destiny, to which obedience and worship are due. John Dewey unseenatheismdestiny All direction is but re-direction; it shifts the activities already going on into another channel. Unless one is cognizant of the energies which are already in operation, one's attempts at direction will almost surely go amiss. John Dewey operationsactivityenergy There is no discipline in the world so severe as the discipline of experience subjected to the tests of intelligent development and direction. John Dewey disciplineintelligentdevelopment Fundamental modes of speech, the bulk of the vocabulary, are formed in the ordinary intercourse of life, carried on not as a set means of instruction but as a social necessity. John Dewey vocabularyordinarymean To have an idea of a thing is not just to get certain sensations from it. It is to be able to respond to the thing in view of its place in an inclusive scheme of action; it is to foresee the drift and probable consequence of the action of the thing upon us and of our action upon it. John Dewey our-actionsviewsideas A possibility of continuing progress is opened up by the fact that in learning one act, methods are developed good for use in other situations. Still more important is the fact that the human being acquires a habit of learning. He learns to learn. John Dewey progressimportantuse While every social arrangement is educative in effect, the educative effect first becomes an important part of the purpose of the association in connection with the association of the older with the younger. John Dewey connectionsimportantpurpose Some things which are remote in space and time from a living creature, especially a human creature, may form his environment even more truly than some of the things close to him. John Dewey environmentspacemay A society which is mobile, which is full of channels for the distribution of a change occurring anywhere, must see to it that its members are educated to personal initiative and adaptability. John Dewey adaptabilitymembersinitiative When the child sees the parent looking for something, it is as natural for it also to look for the object and to give it over when it finds it, as it was, under other circumstances, to receive it. Multiply such an instance by the thousand details of daily intercourse, and one has a picture of the most permanent and enduring method of giving direction to the activities of the young. John Dewey parentgivingchildren One code prevails in the family; another, on the street; a third, in the workshop or store; a fourth, in the religious association. As a person passes from one of the environments to another, he is subjected to antagonistic pulls, and is in danger of being split into a being having different standards of judgment and emotion for different occasions. This danger imposes upon the school a steadying and integrating office. John Dewey officereligiousschool Not only does social life demand teaching and learning for its own permanence, but the very process of living together educates. It enlarges and enlightens experience; it stimulates and enriches imagination; it creates responsibility for accuracy and vividness of statement and thought. John Dewey imaginationresponsibilityteaching Society not only continues to exist by transmission, by communication, but it may fairly be said to exist in transmission, in communication. John Dewey communicationsaidmay Those engaged in directing the actions of others are always in danger of overlooking the importance of the sequential development of those they direct. John Dewey developmentdangeraction A being connected with other beings cannot perform his own activities without taking the activities of others into account. For they are the indispensable conditions of the realization of his tendencies. When he moves he stirs them and reciprocally. John Dewey tendenciesrealizationmoving The first office of the social organ we call the school is to provide a simplified environment. It selects the features which are fairly fundamental and capable of being responded to by the young. Then it establishes a progressive order, using the factors first acquired as means of gaining insight into what is more complicated. John Dewey ordermeanschool The only way to abolish war is to make peace seem heroic. John Dewey heroicwarway Scientific principles and laws do not lie on the surface of nature. They are hidden, and must be wrested from nature by an active and elaborate technique of inquiry. John Dewey lawsciencelying
