Commonplace Sampler: June

I have since often observed how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, viz., that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men.
-Robinson Crusoe, p21-22

A modern Darwinian education cultivates nothing less than practical atheism, if not actual atheism.

-Brandy Vincel, Charlotte Mason, Total Depravity, and the Divine Image

Thus, to understand the action of a hormone on its target, we must know the local concentration of the hormone, which is affected by the rate of its synthesis and secretion, its half-life, and transport through plasma or extracellular fluid to its target cell; the proportion of hormone available to receptors, which in the case of steroid hormones is influenced by the plasma concentration of binding proteins; and the number of unbound receptors.
-Human Reproductive Biology, p8


The girl who kisses the chamber door of her class mistress will forget this lady by and by; but the parasitic habit has been formed and she must always have some person or some cause on which to hang her body and soul. I speak of  'she' and 'her' perhaps unfairly...
-Charlotte Mason, vol 6 p49


There is a common notion that it is our right not only to say what we please but to think what we please, that is, we believe that while the body is subject to physical laws, while the affections, love and justice, are subject to moral laws, the mind is a chartered libertine. Probably this notion has much to do with our neglect of intellect.
-Charlotte Mason vol6 p49


As for literature -- to introduce children to literature is to install them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served.
-Charlotte Mason, vol 6 p51