This assumption that the blue collar crowd is not supposed to read it, or a farmer in his overalls is not to read poetry, seems to be dangerous if not tragic.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of accessibility to literature for all people, regardless of their background.
Joseph Brodsky's quote critiques the societal assumption that certain groups, like blue-collar workers or farmers, should not engage with literature such as poetry. Brodsky suggests that this belief is not only dangerous but also tragic, as it deprives individuals of the beauty and wisdom that literature offers, regardless of their occupation or attire.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of universal access to education.
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending.
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
I don't think that everyone should become a mathematician, but I do believe that many students don't give mathematics a real chance.
The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading.
As an educator, I try to get people to be fundamentally curious and to question ideas that they might have or that are shared by others. In that state of mind, they have earned a kind of inoculation against the fuzzy thinking of these weird ideas floating around out there.
I still remember the realization in college at Flinders University in Australia that mathematics was not just an abstract game of symbols but could be used as a tool to analyze and understand the modern world.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Education is the transmission of civilization.
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