Universities are the cathedrals of the modern age. They shouldn't have to justify their existence by utilitarian criteria.
Interpretation
Universities are vital institutions that should not be judged solely based on their practical benefits.
David Lodge's quote emphasizes the importance of universities as centers of knowledge and culture, akin to the cathedrals of the past. He argues that these institutions should not be forced to justify their value based on utilitarian metrics, such as job preparation or economic output, but rather be appreciated for their role in fostering critical thinking, creativity, and the pursuit of knowledge.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech at a graduation ceremony to highlight the importance of education.
to read is to surrender oneself to an endless displacement of curiosity and desire from one sentence to another, from one action to another, from one level of a text to another. The text unveils itself before us, but never allows itself to be possessed; and instead of trying to possess it we should take pleasure in its teasing
Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids' dreams too. Once in a while, that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes.
I can speak of my own criterion for judging whether or not a book is good or bad. I ask of it a single question, From how deep and true an impulse did it spring? Was it written merely to shock? Only to make money? Or was it written to create something more perfect and more lasting than the life experience from which it came?
You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.
When I was writing for children, I was writing genre fiction. It was like making a good chair. However beautiful it looked, it needed four legs of the same length, it had to be the right height and it had to be comfortable.
Study history, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft.
We think scientific literacy flows out of how many science facts can you recite rather than how was your brain wired for thinking. And it's the brain wiring that I'm more interested in rather than the facts that come out of the curriculum or the lesson plan that's been proposed.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.