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.
As I've often said, you can shop online and find whatever you're looking for, but bookstores are where you find what you weren't looking for.
The foundations of any subject may be taught to anybody at any age in some form.
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
In India, knowledge has always been considered more valuable than power, fame or riches. In our tradition, educational institutions are respected as temples of learning.
No voice teacher can be all things to all people. You have to gain information from whatever sources you can. You have to listen.
A good part of 'The Information' is about the transition from an oral to a literary culture. Books effected such a great transformation in the way we think about the world, our history, our logic, mathematics, you name it. I think we would be greatly diminished as a people and as a culture if the book became obsolete.
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