TIME and truth are friends, though there are many moments hostile to truth.
Joseph JoubertRead
The paper is patient, but the reader is not.
Interpretation
Writing requires patience from the author, but readers may not have the same patience.
This quote by Joseph Joubert suggests that while a piece of writing can be endlessly revised and adapted to improve it, the reader often approaches it with a limited amount of patience. This highlights the importance of engaging the reader quickly and effectively, as their time and attention are finite, in contrast to the vast potential for refinement that exists in the written word itself.
In practice
This quote can be used in a writing workshop to emphasize the need for concise and engaging writing.
TIME and truth are friends, though there are many moments hostile to truth.
A work is perfectly finished only when nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away.
We live in an age in which superfluous ideas abound and essential ideas are lacking.
Words, like glasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. Before using a fine word, make a place for it.
Before using a fine word, make a place for it.
Professional critics are incapable of distinguishing and appreciating either diamonds in the rough or gold in bars. They are traders, and in literature know only the coins that are current. Their critical lab has scales and weights, but neither crucible or touchstone.
The act of learning to read added an entirely new circuit to our hominid brain's repertoire. The long developmental process of learning to read deeply changed the very structure of that circuit's connections, which rewired the brain, which transformed the nature of human thought.
I think there in a great deal to be said for religious education in the sense of teaching about religion and biblical literacy. Both those things, by the way, I suspect will prepare a child to give up religion. If you are taught comparative religion, you are more likely to realise that there are other religions than the one you have been brought up in. And if you are if you are taught to read the bible, I can think of almost nothing more calculated to turn you off religion.
Freedom in education has many aspects. There is first of all freedom to learn or not to learn. Then there is freedom as to what to learn. And in later education there is freedom of opinion.
It is much easier to condemn a child than to understand a child.
Negative feelings are typical of learning, and you shouldn't feel like you're stupid when you're frustrated doing something. You might say to yourself, 'I can't do this,' but you should say, 'That's great.' That means you really have the potential to learn something there.
I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth. We need to be taught to study rather than believe, to inquire rather than to affirm.
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