Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail.
Alfred Whitney GriswoldRead
A college education is not a quantitative body of memorized knowledge salted away in a card file. It is a taste for knowledge, a taste for philosophy, if you will; a capacity to explore, to question to perceive relationships, between fields of knowledge and experience.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A college education is about fostering curiosity and the ability to connect different fields of knowledge rather than merely accumulating facts.
Alfred Whitney Griswold emphasizes that a college education should not be seen as simply the memorization of facts and statistics. Rather, it is about nurturing a thirst for knowledge and the ability to critically engage with various ideas and concepts. He suggests that true education cultivates the skills necessary to explore, question, and understand the interconnectedness of different fields, ultimately transforming how one perceives and engages with the world.
Themes
EducationKnowledgeCuriosityPhilosophyExploration
In practice
Example use cases
In a classroom discussion about the value of education, this quote can highlight the importance of critical thinking.
More from Alfred Whitney Griswold
All quotes →Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it
Alfred Whitney GriswoldRead
Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.
Alfred Whitney GriswoldRead
Similar quotes
At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction.
Elizabeth Barrett BrowningRead
The greatest obstacle to those who hope to reform American education is complacency.
Diane RavitchRead
Young children possess the ability to cut across the customary categories; to appreciate usually undiscerned links among realms, to respond effectively in a parallel manner to events which are usually categorized differently, and to capture these ori
Howard GardnerRead
I had no education whatsoever, and my mother said, 'Oh, you'll get a much better education in life.' I did to some extent, though I always wish I could have tried it.
Julie AndrewsRead
By including children with different learning abilities in mainstream and specialized schools, we can change attitudes and promote respect. By creating suitable jobs for adults with autism, we integrate them into society.
Ban Ki-MoonRead
I saw as a teacher how, if you take that spark of learning that those children have, and you ignite it, you can take a child from any background to a lifetime of creativity and accomplishment.
Paul WellstoneRead