Man is endogenous, and education is his unfolding. The aid we have from others is mechanical, compared with the discoveries of nature in us. What is thus learned is delightful in the doing, and the effect remains.
Interpretation
Education reveals the inherent potential within individuals, but external help pales in comparison to self-discovery.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the idea that true education is not merely the transmission of knowledge from others, but rather the process of unfolding one's own innate potential and capabilities. While mechanical assistance from others can be helpful, the most profound learning occurs within oneself through personal experiences and discoveries, which leads to a lasting and fulfilling impact on one's life.
In practice
In a graduation speech to inspire students about self-learning and discovery.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
There's a common perception among college administrators that they should conceal the high level of sexual assaults that take place on their campuses because it would bring discredit to the university, bring them a bad name if it was publicized.
Reading is an exercise for learning how to write and vice versa. I have read myself into being a Christian, but I have also written myself into being a Christian.
Whether we're talking about race or gender or class, popular culture is where the pedagogy is, it's where the learning is.
For a person whose sole burning ambition is to write - like myself - college is useless beyond the Sophomore year.
The education of women is the best way to save the environment.
Libraries are starting places for the adventure of learning that can go on whatever one's vocation and location in life. Reading is an adventure like that of discovery itself. Libraries are our base camp.
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