History had been man's effort to accomodate himself to what he could not do. Amereican history in the 20th century would, more than ever before, test man's ability to accomodate himself to all the new things he could do.
Daniel J. BoorstinRead
Knowledge is not simply another commodity. On the contrary. Knowledge is never used up. It increases by diffusion and grows by dispersion.
Interpretation
Knowledge expands when shared, rather than being depleted.
Daniel J. Boorstin's quote emphasizes that knowledge is unique in its nature; it is not a finite resource that diminishes when used. Instead, knowledge multiplies through sharing and communication, suggesting that the more it is spread among people, the more it grows and benefits society as a whole.
In practice
In a seminar on technology and innovation, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of sharing information among peers.
History had been man's effort to accomodate himself to what he could not do. Amereican history in the 20th century would, more than ever before, test man's ability to accomodate himself to all the new things he could do.
The most promising words ever written on the maps of human knowledge are terra incognita, unknown territory.
Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.
Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.
We need not be theologians to see that we have shifted responsibility for making the world interesting from God to the newspaperman.
There was a time when the reader of an unexciting newspaper would remark, 'How dull is the world today!' Nowadays he says, 'What a dull newspaper!'
If you step up the self-education curve, you will come up with more answers than you can use.
Traveling is my form of self-education. Every stream I fish now is not as good as it used to be. Traveling is my form of self-education. Every stream I fish now is not as good as it used to be. If you keep your eyes open as you travel around, you realize we are destroying this planet.
A week of camp life is worth six months of theoretical teaching in the meeting room.
We do not trust educated people and rarely, alas, produce them, for we do not trust the independence of mind which alone makes a genuine education possible.
To teach a man how he may learn to grow independently, and for himself, is perhaps the greatest service that one man can do another.
We must recover the element of quality in our traditional pursuit of equality. We must not, in opening our schools to everyone, confuse the idea that all should have equal chance with the notion that all have equal endowments.
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