Top 120 Amos Bronson Alcott Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Of books in our time the variety is so voluminous, and they follow so fast from the press, that one must be a swift reader to acquaint himself even with their titles, and wise to discern what are worth reading.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

52. “One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

53. “Genius – the free and harmonious play of all the faculties of a human being.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

54. “Time ripens the substance of a life as the seasons mellow and perfect its fruits. The best apples fall latest and keep longest.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

55. “Sloth is the tempter that beguiles and expels from paradise.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

56. “The head best leaves to the heart what the heart alone divines.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

57. “A good style fits like a good costume.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

58. “Enthusiasm is essential to the successful attainment of any high endeavor.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

59. “Man must have some recognized stake in society and affairs to knit him lovingly to his kind, or he is wont to revenge himself for wrongs real or imagined.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

60. “Friendship is a plant that loves the sun, thrives ill under clouds.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

61. “The wisest and best are repulsive, if they are characterized by repulsive manners. Politeness is an easy virtue, costs little, and has great purchasing power.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

62. “When one becomes indifferent to women, to children, and young people., he may know that he is superannuated, and has withdrawn from whatsoever is sweetest and purest in human existence.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

63. “My favorite books have a personality and complexion as distinctly drawn as if the author’s portrait were framed into the paragraphs and smiled upon me as I read his illustrated pages.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

64. “Children are illuminated text-books, breviaries of doctrine, living bodies of divinity, open always and inviting their elders to peruse the characters inscribed on the lovely leaves.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

65. “The best teachers don’t allow their own personal views to influence their teaching.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

66. “Sympathy wanting, all is wanting; its personal magnetism is the conductor of the sacred spark that lights our atoms, puts us m human communion, and gives us to company, conversation, and ourselves.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

67. “Evil is retributive: every trespass slips fetters on the will, holds the soul in durance till contrition and repentance restore it to liberty.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

68. “The eyes have a property in things and territories not named in any title-deeds, and are the owners of our choicest possessions.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

69. “An age deficient in idealism has ever been one of immorality and superficial attainment, since without the sense of ideas, nobility of character becomes of rare attainment, if possible.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

70. “The books that charmed us in youth recall the delight ever afterwards; we are hardly persuaded there are any like them, any deserving our equal affections.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

71. “The more one endeavors to sound the depths of his ignorance the deeper the chasm appears.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

72. “Genius has oftenest been the pariah of his time, the unhoused god whom none cared for, unnamed till they whom he first promoted, enriched and honored, found it honorable to own their benefactor.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

73. “One must espouse some pursuit, taking it kindly at heart and with enthusiasm.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

74. “One does not see his thought distinctly till it is reflected in the image of another’s.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

75. “Right is the royal ruler alone; and he who rules with least restraint comes nearest to empire.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

76. “Who knows, the mind has the key to all things besides.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

77. “A birthday is a good time to begin a new; throwing away the old habits, as you would old clothes, and never putting them again.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

78. “The mind is fast emancipating itself from the dominion of man and of matter. It has let loose fearful forces on the world.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

79. “Wherever comes man comes tragedy and comedy also.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

80. “Ideas in the head set hands about their several tasks.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

81. “One must be rich in thought and character to owe nothing to books, though preparation is necessary to profitable reading; and the less reading is better than more; – book-struck men are of all readers least wise, however knowing or learned.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

82. “Truth is inclusive of all the virtues, is older than sects and schools, and, like charity, more ancient than mankind.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

83. “Enthusiasm imparts itself magnetically and fuses all into one happy and harmonious unity of feeling and sentiment.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

84. “An author who sets his reader on sounding the depths of his own thoughts serves him best.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

85. “If the ancients left us ideas, to our credit be it spoken that we moderns are building houses for them – structures which neither Plato nor Archimedes had dreamed possible.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

86. “None can teach admirably if not loving his task.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

87. “A chaste generation would restore Paradise.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

88. “Your real influence is measured by your treatment of yourself.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

89. “There is virtue in country houses, in gardens and orchards, in fields, streams and groves, in rustic recreations and plain manners, that neither cities nor universities enjoy.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

90. “Who speaks to the instincts speaks to the deepest in mankind, and finds the readiest response.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

91. “A work of real merit finds favor at last.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

92. “We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

93. “I consider it the best part of an education to have been born and brought up in the country.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

94. “All unrest is but the struggle of the soul to reassure herself of her inborn immortality.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

95. “Civilization degrades many in order to exalt the few.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

96. “A sip is the most than mortals are permitted from any goblet of delight.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

97. “A good book is fruitful of other books; it perpetuates its fame from age to age, and makes eras in the lives of its readers.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

98. “One’s life should be sufficiently interesting to furnish entertainment in the record.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

99. “A man defines his standing at the court of chastity by his views of women.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott

100. “Cities with all their advantages have something hostile to liberal learning, the seductions are so subtle and accost the senses so openly on all sides.”

— Amos Bronson Alcott