“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”

“For every one pupil who needs to be guarded against a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.”

“You've got to spread out as far as you can, cut down a whole forest, irrigate a whole desert, just to make sure that you won't accidentally stumble upon a place that's still in its natural state.”

“Everyone drank to popular education and to the irrigation of Uzbekistan.”

“The ocean, the desert, and the jungle are the last strongholds and resorts of peace. ("Fear")”

“It is always a much easier task to educate uneducated people than to re-educate the mis-educated.”