Interpreting Quotations

Quotations can inspire and educate your students. Here are some quotations. Have your students discuss what they think is meant by the quotation.

• I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right. (Albert Einstein)
• Man’s capacity for evil makes democracy necessary, and man’s capacity for good makes democracy possible. (Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian)
• Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. (Abraham Lincoln)
• There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his. (Helen Keller)
• Character, not circumstances, makes the man. (Booker T. Washington)

Have your students locate and discuss other quotations.