Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed.
Interpretation
Books gain their significance from the history and respect they have earned over time.
This quote emphasizes the idea that the true worth of books, similar to proverbs, comes not just from their content but from the legacy and reverence they accumulate throughout history. It suggests that the value of literature is deeply intertwined with the cultural context and the appreciation it receives over generations.
In practice
During a book club meeting, discussing the lasting impact of classic literature.
Today's dissenters mainly focus their attention and expend their energies on the most inconsequential of trivia. ...Allegedly serious intellectuals quibble endlessly over such ridiculous trivialities...In the meantime, the public is lulled into a perilous somnolence, spoon-fed pap, and palpable untruths, many of which are turned out by special-interest and pressure groups and well organized propaganda machines.
You must not only learn to live with tension, you must seek it out. You must learn to thrive on stress.
In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.
The #1 guideline to success is you must be in business for yourself. When you work for someone else, you sell your time at wholesale to your employer, who then re-sells it at retail to the customer.
Patience; this is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves.
There is only one way to make a great deal of money; and that is in a business of your own.
Let's teach kids, at the kindergarten level, what the contributions of people of color were to building the United States of America.
What I really want are students who want to partner with other people, to be part of an organization and to influence people so that they can accomplish things that the organization would not have accomplished otherwise.
I hate the idea that, when it comes to books and learning, hard is often seen as the opposite of fun. It's strange to me that we should be so quick to give up on a book or a math problem when we are so willing to grapple, for centuries if necessary, with a single level of Angry Birds.
You only learn when you give your whole being to something. When you give your whole being to mathematics,you learn; but when you are in a state of contradiction, when you do not want to learn but are forced to learn, then it becomes merely a process of accumulation. To learn is like reading a novel with innumerable characters; it requires your full attention, not contradictory attention.
Only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur.
A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.
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