What do we teach our children? . . . We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique . . . You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.
Interpretation
Encouraging children to recognize their unique potential and greatness.
This quote emphasizes the importance of nurturing and recognizing the individual potential in children. Pablo Casals urges us to communicate to the younger generation that they possess unique talents and abilities that could lead them to achieve greatness, much like renowned figures in art and literature. By acknowledging their uniqueness, we empower them to pursue their dreams and aspirations.
In practice
In a school assembly, a teacher shares this quote to inspire creativity and self-confidence among students.
Bach is the supreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.
In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.
The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.
I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.
To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world.
Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books." You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I'm not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.
I think with you, that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are in my opinion, the strength of the state; more so than riches or arms.
What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?
We're so preoccupied with protecting children from disappointment and discomfort that we're inadvertently excusing them from growing up.
You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.
Libraries aren't in the real world, after all. They're places apart, sanctuaries of pure thought. In this way I can go on living on the moon for the rest of my life.
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