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Older boys were allowed to beat younger ones at my 15th-century English boarding school, and every boy had to run a five-mile annual steeplechase through the sludge and rain of an October day, as horses do. We wrote poems in dead languages and recited the Lord's Prayer in Latin every Sunday night.
Pico Iyer
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the challenging environment of a 15th-century English boarding school, emphasizing both physical trials and intellectual rigor.

Pico Iyer describes the harsh yet formative experiences of boys in a 15th-century boarding school, highlighting the physical endurance required through activities like the steeplechase, as well as the intellectual challenges presented by studying dead languages. This duality of hardship and scholarly pursuit illustrates the toughening nature of education during that time, shaping character and resilience in young boys.

Themes

Boarding SchoolEducationEnduranceChallengesLearning

In practice

Example use cases

This quote is perfect for discussing the rigorous nature of traditional education in a history class.

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Quitting, for me, means not giving up, but moving on; changing direction not because something doesn’t agree with you, but because you don’t agree with something. It’s not a complaint, in other words, but a positive choice, and not a stop in one’s journey, but a step in a better direction. Quitting-whether a job or a habit-means taking a turn so as to be sure you’re still moving in the direction of your dreams.
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I'm no Buddhist monk, and I can't say I'm in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I've written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn't want or need, not all I did.
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