1001Philosophers

Comenius 1592 – 1670

Jan Amos Komensky, known in Latin as Comenius, was a Czech bishop of the Unity of the Brethren, philosopher, theologian, and the principal architect of modern educational thought. Driven into exile by the Thirty Years' War, he spent decades wandering across central and northern Europe, advising princes and reformers from Poland to England, Sweden, and the Netherlands. His Great Didactic, Orbis Pictus, the first illustrated textbook for children, and the Pansophical project for the unification of all knowledge defended the education of all human beings, women as well as men, in a peace-loving Christian society. He has been called the father of modern education.

Key facts

Nationality
Czech
Era
Modern
Movements
Early Modern

Selected quotes

  • Attributed to Comenius:

    “Let the main object be to find a method by which teachers teach less, but learners learn more.”

  • Attributed to Comenius:

    “All things in nature have their seasons, and so does human learning.”

  • Attributed to Comenius:

    “We are all citizens of one world.”

  • Attributed to Comenius:

    “Education is the means by which the human being becomes most fully human.”

  • Attributed to Comenius:

    “Whatever is to be learned must be learned in its proper order.”