Children must first be trained in divine virtues and encouraged to improve their characters. When this has taken place, every effort must be made to teach them sciences, crafts, and other excellences - for if godly training and a goodly character are absent, the acquisition of sciences and crafts alone are inadequate. In such a state, there would be nothing to safeguard the child’s character against corruption, or to protect him from the harmful influence of self and desire. On the contrary, such a void would generate idle thoughts, and strengthen the compelling power of personal interests. Such an outcome can be avoided only when this secular education is imparted in conjunction with the conferment of godly training and the cultivation of a goodly character.
- 'Abdu'l-Baha (Words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, 27 December 1912, London, England, recorded by Mahmud Zarqani, His secretary and chronicler during His travels in the West; ‘Mahmud’s Diary’, vol. 2: ‘Abdu’l-Baha in Europe 1912-1913)