Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
AristophanesRead
Children have a master to teach them, grown-ups have the poets.
Interpretation
Children learn from teachers, while adults find wisdom and inspiration in poetry.
This quote by Aristophanes highlights the transition from formal education in childhood to the more introspective and creative learning that comes from engaging with poetry in adulthood. It suggests that while children require structured learning from teachers, adults benefit from the insights and reflections found in poetic works, indicating a deeper, more personal form of enlightenment as they mature.
In practice
A teacher might use this quote to emphasize the importance of poetry in understanding complex emotions.
Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
[Y]ou [man] are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with [woman=] me, when for your faithful ally you might win me easily.
Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you.
When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: Can't live with them, or without them.
I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.
What's done to children, they will do to society.
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
I don't teach writing classes anymore, and I'm really glad I don't, because I would feel very strange about telling people, 'Go out there and be a writer, and make a living from it.'
Deftly they opened the brain of a child, and it was full of flying dreams.
We are all shaped by the tools we use, in particular: the formalisms we use shape our thinking habits, for better or for worse, and that means that we have to be very careful in the choice of what we learn and teach, for unlearning is not really possible.
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