In 1898 Quick explained the value of studying the history of educational reform, arguing that the past accomplishments were cumulative and "would raise us to a higher standing-point from which we may see much that will make the right road clearer to us".
[1] Born in Harrow, London, he was the eldest son of James Carthew Quick, a prosperous merchant.
Quick was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A.
[3] Quick was the first to lecture at Cambridge on the history of education (1879), to the new teachers' training syndicate.
[3] Quick also wrote on Friedrich Fröbel, edited John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1880), and reprinted with notes Richard Mulcaster's Positions (1888).