Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well; but their manners should be of the greatest concern.
The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.
Interpretation
What this quote means
People should prioritize their personal thoughts and passions over societal expectations of earning a living.
This quote by R. Buckminster Fuller emphasizes the importance of education as a means to explore and cultivate one’s own thoughts and interests. It suggests that too often, individuals are sidetracked by the necessity to earn a living, which can detract from their intellectual growth and personal fulfillment. Going back to school, in this context, symbolizes a return to creativity and self-discovery, allowing individuals to engage deeply with their true interests without the constraints imposed by societal norms.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech to inspire students to pursue their passions.
More from R. Buckminster Fuller
All quotes →There is no such thing as genius, some children are just less damaged than others.
Only the free-wheeling artist-explorer, non-academic, scientist-philosopher, mechanic, economist-poet who has never waited for patron-starting and accrediting of his co-ordinate capabilities holds the prime initiative today.
The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.
I have spent most of my life unlearning things that were proved not to be true
The earth is like a spaceship that didn't come with an operating manual.
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We believed that to understand literature, you had to understand its place in history and culture.
Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library.
Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.
I studied psychology in school, and the best psychology is in literature. It's so much easier to understand a character than a theory. You can recognize yourself—or other people—in a different way.
You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.