Becoming a reader grows our horizons, our appetite for the good, the true and the beautiful, and our empathy.
Interpretation
Reading expands our understanding and fosters empathy towards others.
In this quote, Ben Sasse emphasizes the transformative power of reading. He suggests that engaging with literature not only broadens our perspectives but also enhances our appreciation for goodness, truth, beauty, and the ability to empathize with others, ultimately enriching our lives and society as a whole.
In practice
Use this quote during a school assembly to encourage students to read more.
Among the responsibilities of each citizen in a participatory democracy is keeping ourselves sufficiently informed so that we can participate effectively, argue our positions honorably, and hopefully, forge sufficient consensus to understand each other and then to govern.
The health of our republic depends on shared principles like the First Amendment, but it is also built on the Teddy Roosevelt-like vigor of its citizens and local self-reliance.
Being stuck in adolescence - that's a hell. 'Peter Pan' is a dystopia, and we forget that. Neverland is a bad place to be.
Rising political tribalism, shamelessly exaggerating our opponents' claims or behavior, is leaving us vulnerable: No one loves America's internal fighting - and our increasingly siloed news consumption - more than Vladimir Putin.
Good history is good story-telling. And good story-telling demands empathy; it requires understanding different actors, differing motivations, competing goals.
I don't think that our Founders would believe that America could long prosper if the people were not readers.
Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you'll never know where you'll get an idea from.
I hate the idea that, when it comes to books and learning, hard is often seen as the opposite of fun. It's strange to me that we should be so quick to give up on a book or a math problem when we are so willing to grapple, for centuries if necessary, with a single level of Angry Birds.
Travel is rich with learning opportunities, and the ultimate sourvenir is a broader perspective.
If you have children, you cannot feed them forever with flags for breakfast and cartridges for lunch. You need something more substantial. Unless you educate your children and spend less money on conflicts, unless you develop your science, technology and industry, you don't have a future.
This pleased Onyango, for to him knowledge was the source of all the white man's power, and he wanted to make sure that his son was as educated as any white man.
We must be learning if we are to feel fully alive, and when life, or love, becomes too predictable and it seems like there is little left to learn, we become restless - a protest, perhaps, of the plastic brain when it can no longer perform its essential task.
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