The writers we absorb when we're young bind us to them, sometimes lightly, sometimes with iron. In time, the bonds fall away, but if you look very closely you can sometimes make out the pale white groove of a faded scar, or the telltale chalky red of old rust.
Interpretation
The writers we encounter in our youth create lasting impacts on us, which may fade but leave a mark.
This quote reflects on the profound influence that literature and authors have on us during our formative years. It illustrates how the stories, ideas, and styles of writing we engage with can create deep connections that shape our identity, perspectives, and emotional landscapes. While these influences may eventually weaken or change over time, they leave an indelible impression that can be identified even years later, akin to a scar or rust that signifies past experiences.
In practice
In a book discussion, to emphasize the lasting impact of childhood reading on personal growth.
Closeness can lead to emotions other than love. It's the ones who have been too intimate with you, lived in too close quarters, seen too much of your pain or envy or, perhaps more than anything, your shame, who, at the crucial moment, can be too easy to cut out, to exile, to expel, to kill off.
What children can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense even more indicative of their mental development than what they can do alone
The best way to get kids to read a book is to say: 'This book is not appropriate for your age, and it has all sorts of horrible things in it like sex and death and some really big and complicated ideas, and you're better off not touching it until you're all grown up. I'm going to put it on this shelf and leave the room for a while. Don't open it.
Education can, and should be, dangerous.
If you teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. This sum may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors.
Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the 'naturals,' the ones who somehow know how to teach.
One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.
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