Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results. - John Dewey
I feel the gods are pretty dead, though I suppose I ought to know that however, to be somewhat more philosophical in the matter, if atheism means simply not being a theist, then of course I'm an atheist.[Letter to Max Otto] - John Dewey
The goal of education is to enable individuals to continue their education. - John Dewey
The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action. - John Dewey
We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts. - John Dewey
Social engaged intellectuals must accept reality as they found it and shape it toward positive social goals, not stand aside in self-righteous isolation. - John Dewey
Intellectually, religious emotions are not creative but conservative. They attach themselves readily to the current view of the world and consecrate it. - 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
Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes. - John Dewey
As we have seen there is some kind of continuity in any case since every experience affects for better or worse the attitudes which help decide the quality of further experiences, by setting up certain preference and aversion, and making it easier or harder to act for this or that end. - John Dewey
We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience. - John Dewey
We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique. - John Dewey
It is our American habit if we find the foundations of our educational structure unsatisfactory to add another story or wing. We find it easier to add a new study or course or kind of school than to recognize existing conditions so as to meet the need. - John Dewey
Luck, bad if not good, will always be with us. But it has a way of favoring the intelligent and showing its back to the stupid. - John Dewey
To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness. - John Dewey
Education is life itself. - John Dewey
A problem well-defined is a problem half solved. - John Dewey
The two limits of every unit of thinking are a perplexed, troubled, or confused situation at the beginning, and a cleared up, unified, resolved situation at the close. - John Dewey
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
As long as politics is the shadow of big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance. - John Dewey
a problem well put is half solved. - John Dewey