We prize books, and they prize them most who are themselves wise.
Interpretation
Books are valued by those who possess wisdom, and the wisest individuals cherish them the most.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the special relationship between wisdom and the appreciation of books. It suggests that the pursuit of knowledge and understanding through reading is both a hallmark of wisdom and a means to cultivate it. Those who are wise recognize the value of books not just as sources of information, but as tools for personal growth and enlightenment.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of education, one might quote Emerson to emphasize how wise individuals value learning.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
The only skill that will be important in the 21st century is the skill of learning new skills.Everythi ng else will become obsolete over time.
To put it simply and a bit crudely: Our economy is demanding more well-educated workers than our schools are providing. To attract this scarce resource, communities have to offer more than just jobs.
It is much simpler to buy books than to read them and easier to read them than to absorb their contents.
It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content... it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion.
When you're learning, especially to write, unless you're some incredibly gifted writer, a young Malcom Gladwell, say, you need to be imitating people. You need to be imitating how they make their work, how they structure it, how they design the pieces. It gives you chops; it gives you moves.
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