Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin

In short, there is not one single science which does not suffer in its development from a want of men and women endowed with a philosophical conception of the universe, ready to apply their forces of investigation in a given field, however…

History remains a fable convenue chiefly because it wants fresh ideas, but also because it wants scientifically thinking workers to reconstitute the life of past centuries in the same way as Thorold Rogers or Augustin Thierry have done it…

Physiology, both of plants and animals, psycho-physiology, and the psychological faculties of man and animals are so many branches of knowledge requiring more data of the simplest description.

When facts contradictory to current theories become numerous, the theories must be revised (we saw it in Darwin’s case), and thousands of simple intelligent workers in science are required to accumulate the necessary facts.

And if the revision requires some of that inspiration of genius which moved Galileo and Newton, and which depends in its appearance upon general causes of human development, it requires also an increase in the number of scientific workers.

In short, in each branch of science a revision of the current theories as well as new wide generalisations are wanted.

But, if we take into account that most of the problems which our century has solved already had been indicated, and their solutions foreseen, a hundred years ago, we must admit that the progress was not so rapid as might have been…

It has become a commonplace to speak with emphasis about the progress of science during the nineteenth century; and it is evident that our century, if compared with centuries past, has much to be proud of.

But those who will take into account the following considerations probably will agree that the result ought to be the reverse--namely, such a revival of science and art, and such a progress in industry, as we only can faintly foresee from…

Certainly, I do not cherish the illusion that a thorough reform in education, or in any of the issues indicated in the preceding chapters, will be made as long as the civilised nations remain under the present narrowly egotistic system of…

The great masters painted with an astonishing rapidity; but their rapid work was the result of a great development of intelligence and imagination, of a keen sense of beauty, of a fine perception of colours.

This is the true time-saving celerity, the most appropriate for economising human labour; and the best means for attaining it is an education of the most superior kind.

However plain his work, the educated worker makes it better and quicker than the uneducated.

But there is also the time-saving celerity of the well-trained worker, and this is surely achieved best by the kind of education which we advocate.

Why this waste of human force, when it could produce ten times the value of the odd rests of yarn?

What has remained of the human being in those shivering bodies?

But the very fact of requiring such kind of rapid work is the condemnation of the factory system.

It is evident that celerity of work is a most important factor in production.

Do you remember how you were delighted, in your childhood, if your work was utilised, be it only as a part of something useful?

It was, not to give work for mere exercise, but to utilise everything which the pupil makes, from his very first steps.

Just as there are in science some notions and methods which are preparatory to the study of all sciences, so there are also some fundamental notions and methods preparatory to the special study of any handicraft.

We know how years are wasted when a boy serves his apprenticeship in a workshop; but the same reproach can be addressed, to a great extent, to those technical schools which endeavour at once to teach some special handicraft, instead of…

If waste of time is characteristic of our methods of teaching science, it is characteristic as well of the methods used for teaching handicraft.

Instead of learning the laws of force with plain instruments which a boy of fifteen can easily make, they learn them from mere drawings, in a purely abstract fashion.

The waste of time in physics is simply revolting.