Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail.
Alfred Whitney GriswoldRead
A college education is not a quantitative body of memorized knowledge salted away in a card file. It is a taste for knowledge, a taste for philosophy, if you will; a capacity to explore, to question to perceive relationships, between fields of knowledge and experience.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A college education is about fostering curiosity and the ability to connect different fields of knowledge rather than merely accumulating facts.
Alfred Whitney Griswold emphasizes that a college education should not be seen as simply the memorization of facts and statistics. Rather, it is about nurturing a thirst for knowledge and the ability to critically engage with various ideas and concepts. He suggests that true education cultivates the skills necessary to explore, question, and understand the interconnectedness of different fields, ultimately transforming how one perceives and engages with the world.
Themes
EducationKnowledgeCuriosityPhilosophyExploration
In practice
Example use cases
In a classroom discussion about the value of education, this quote can highlight the importance of critical thinking.
More from Alfred Whitney Griswold
All quotes →Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it
Alfred Whitney GriswoldRead
Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.
Alfred Whitney GriswoldRead
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