"Thought is not merely expressed in words; it comes into existence through them. Every thought tends to connect something with something else, to establish a relation between things. Every thought moves, grows, and develops, fulfills a function, solves a problem."

"Thought undergoes many changes as it turns into speech. It does note merely find expression in speech; it finds its reality and form."

"In development ... what changes is not so much the function ... as the relationships and connections between them. In development, grouping of psychological functions emerge that were unknown at preceding stages"

"Thus is the educational process an active one on three levels: the student is active, the teacher is active, and the environment created between them is an active one."

"'Whoever enters leave all hope behind' should not be written on the school door."

From Mind in Society

"the most significant moment in the course of intellectual development, which gives birth to the purely human forms of practical and abstract intelligence, occurs when speech and practical activity, two previously completley independent lines of development, converge" (p. 24).

"With the help of speech, unlike apes, acquire the capacity to be both subjects and objects of their own behavior" (p. 26).

"Just as mold gives shape to a substance, words can shape an activity into a structure" (p. 28).

Zone of Proximal Development: "It is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (p. 86).

"The zone of proximal development defines those functions that have not yet matured but are in the process of maturation, functions that will mature tomorrow but are currently in an embryonic state" (p. 87).