Nature without learning is like a blind man; learning without Nature, like a maimed one; practice without both, incomplete. As in agriculture a good soil is first sought for, then a skilful husbandman, and then good seed; in the same way nature corresponds to the soil, the teacher to the husbandman, precepts and instruction to the seed.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the interdependence of nature and learning for complete development.
Plutarch's quote articulates the essential relationship between nature and learning, suggesting that true understanding and growth require both elements. Just as good agriculture relies on fertile soil, skilled farming, and quality seeds, the pursuit of knowledge must be grounded in real-world experiences and guided by effective teaching. Without these components, one's development remains incomplete, highlighting the importance of a holistic approach to education.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of experiential learning in education.
Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.
It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
Come back with your shield - or on it
The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
A book is valuable not only for what it says but for what it makes you think, or causes you to remember. No matter what you wish to do or become there are books to teach you, help you, guide you.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
During the first few months of an infant's life, its manner of taking the breast, of laying its head on the pillow, etc., becomes crystallized into imperative habits. This is why education must begin in the cradle.
The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you.
There is so much we can learn from TV. It's a window on the world.
Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.
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