Let those who will write the nation's laws, if I can write its textbooks.
Interpretation
Education shapes the future by influencing the laws and norms of society.
In this quote, Paul Samuelson emphasizes the profound impact that education has on society. He suggests that while laws dictate behavior, it is the educational materials that shape people's beliefs, values, and understanding of the world. By controlling the content of textbooks, one can indirectly influence the direction of a nation, as educated citizens are more likely to shape and uphold laws based on their understanding derived from education.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of curriculum design in schools.
To a person of analytical ability, perceptive enough to realise that mathematical equipment was a powerful sword in economics, the world of economics was his or her oyster in 1935. The terrain was strewn with beautiful theorems begging to be picked up and arranged in unified order.
I can't think of a president who has been overburdened by a knowledge of economics.
My belief is that nothing that can be expressed by mathematics cannot be expressed by careful use of literary words.
Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.
My family was well off but not rich. I spent the four years I was an undergraduate working on the beach. And it wasn't because I was lazy; it was because my freshman class would go to a hundred different employers and wouldn't get a nibble. That was a disequilibrium system. I realized that the ordinary old-fashioned Euclidean geometry didn't apply.
Economics has never been a science - and it is even less now than a few years ago.
. . . finally, I couldn't imagine how I could live without books, and I stopped dreaming about marrying that Chinese prince. . . .
Here I have opportunity enough for the exercise of my talent, as the chief of my time is spent in conversation.
Our popular economics writers, however, are not in the business of giving their readers a ringside seat on the research action; with no exception I can think of, they use their books to do an end run around the normal structure of scholarship, to preach ideas that few serious economists share. Often, these ideas are not just at odds with the professional consensus; they are demonstrably wrong, and sometimes terminally silly. But they sound good to the unwary reader.
I believe that good questions are more important than answers, and the best children's books ask questions, and make the readers ask questions. And every new question is going to disturb someone's universe.
Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.
Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play; they will find that what they have mastered is child's play.
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