Books have led some to learning and others to madness.
Interpretation
Books can inspire knowledge or lead to obsession.
This quote from Petrarch illustrates the dual nature of books and reading. On one hand, they can be a source of immense learning and enlightenment, opening the minds of readers to new ideas and knowledge; on the other hand, they can also consume individuals, leading them to obsessive thoughts or madness if they become too engrossed or lose touch with reality through their readings.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of literature, one might quote Petrarch to illustrate the profound impact of reading.
Gold, silver, jewels, purple garments, houses built of marble, groomed estates, pious paintings, caparisoned steeds, and other things of this kind offer a mutable and superficial pleasure; books give delight to the very marrow of one's bones. They speak to us, consult with us, and join with us in a living and intense intimacy.
Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.
Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.
To begin with myself, then, the utterances of men concerning me will differ widely, since in passing judgment almost every one is influenced not so much by truth as by preference, and good and evil report alike know no bounds.
True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.
I looked back at the summit of the mountain, which seemed but a cubit high in comparison with the height of human contemplation, were in not too often merged in the corruptions of the earth.
When I talk to students - and I still think of myself more than anything as a kind of professor on leave - they say, 'Well, how do I get to do what you do?'... And I say, 'Well, you have to start out by being a failed piano major.' And my point to them is don't try to have a 10-year plan. Find the next thing that interests you and follow that.
Don't dumb down; always write for your top five percent of readers.
I train my chefs completely different to anyone else. My young girls and guys, when they come to the kitchen, the first thing they get is a blindfold. They get blindfolded and they get sat down at the chef's table... Unless they can identify what they're tasting, they don't get to cook it.
Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public.
...the source of all great mathematics is the special case, the concrete example. It is frequent in mathematics that every instance of a concept of seemingly generality is, in essence, the same as a small and concrete special case.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.