As summer finally came to a close following the long Labor Day weekend, area children gathered up their packs of pencils and spiral notebooks and headed off to school for the first day of the fall semester today.

A time for celebration for some and a time of lamentation for others, the beginning on the new school year is a milestone event, marking the start of a new chapter in the educational journey for the growing mind of a child.

To commemorate this occasion, here are some quotes from famous figures that highlight the importance of education:

 

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

— Nelson Mandela

 

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”

— Aristotle

 

“Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin

 

“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.”

— Carl Rogers

 

“The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”

— Malcolm Forbes

 

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

— William Butler Yeats

 

“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.”

— Plato

 

“You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward.”

— Conrad Hall

 

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.”

— Edward Everett

 

“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.”

— Joseph Addison

 

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of Publisher Michael Caldwell and editors Ambrosia Neldon, Craig Haupert, Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.