To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another.
Richard WhatelyRead
A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune.
Interpretation
Teaching children good work habits is more valuable than giving them wealth.
This quote emphasizes the importance of instilling a strong work ethic in children as a fundamental life skill. Richard Whately suggests that by teaching children industrious habits, parents prepare them for future challenges and success far better than simply providing them with material wealth, which may not teach them important lessons about perseverance and responsibility.
In practice
This quote could be shared in a parenting workshop focused on developing children's life skills.
To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another.
It is one thing to wish to have truth on our side, and another to wish sincerely to be on the side of truth.
He who is not aware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge.
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
It is of no use to commit whole pages to memory, merely to recite them once without hesitation; you must think of the meaning more than the words - of the ideas more than the language.
I was read to as a small child, I read on my own as soon as I could, and I recall being more or less overwhelmed again and again - if not by what the books actually said, by what they suggested, what they helped me to imagine.
The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.
A teacher's major contribution may pop out anonymously in the life of some ex-student's grandchild. A teacher, finally, has nothing to go on but faith, a student nothing to offer in return but testimony.
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