There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.
Interpretation
Children's questions can reveal deeper insights than adult discussions.
This quote by John Locke emphasizes the value of curiosity and the profound insights that can come from the innocent and unexpected inquiries of children. It suggests that the simplicity and purity of a child's question often lead to more enlightening discussions than complex opinions held by adults, highlighting the importance of maintaining an open mind and valuing all forms of learning.
In practice
In a classroom setting, a teacher can use this quote to encourage students to ask questions freely.
For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own, or other men's opinions? The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others.
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
Our deeds disguise us. People need endless time to try on their deeds, until each knows the proper deeds for him to do. But every day, every hour, rushes by. There is no time.
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant.
I first learned that there were black people living in some place called other than the United States in the western hemisphere when I was a very little boy, and my father told me that when he was a boy about my age, he wanted to be an Episcopal priest, because he so admired his priest, a black man from someplace called Haiti.
The exercise of voluntary attention in the schoolroom must therefore be counted one of the most important points of training that take place there; and the first-rate teacher, by the keenness of the remoter interests which he is able to awaken, will provide abundant opportunities for its occurrence.
Every time you finish a book, you have a terrible feeling that there's just never going to be another one. But fortunately, so far, the next one has always shown up.
New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
Knowledge is taken from breath, not lives in a book
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