Eliminate every habit that holds you back, every practice that unfits you for progress, every person who depresses you, every move that is not necessary, every footless idea that crowds your brain.
"Dollars and Sense"
Col. Wm. C. Hunter
Bill Sikes objected to education because it spoiled the boys for the trade for which he required them; Dennis the hangman objected to education because "it reduced the professional emoluments of his great constitutional office," or, in other words, reduced the number who had to be hanged; and their reasons are just as respectable as the reason given by any man in any position who objects to free education because it unfits boys for certain trades, or girls for "service," or because "it fills their minds with ideas above their station," or because they have to pay their just share of its cost, or for any other narrow and selfish reason.
"Dickens As an Educator"
James L. (James Laughlin) Hughes
Why, that I lose the very power not only of doing, but of thinking, to a degree that makes me seriously uneasy and unfits me to be a companion to anybody older or wiser than Wee-wee, or Baby, whose capacities exactly suit mine.
"Lady-John-Russell"
MacCarthy, Desmond