If you get down about the state of American culture, just remember there are still more public libraries in this country than there are McDonalds.
David McculloughRead
I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities.
Interpretation
The speaker expresses gratitude for receiving a humanities education from their parents.
David McCullough reflects on the importance of his upbringing and the educational opportunities he was afforded through the humanities. He acknowledges the role of his parents and fate in shaping his appreciation for the arts and humanities, suggesting that such education provides valuable insights into human nature and society.
In practice
During a graduation speech to celebrate the achievements of students in the humanities, this quote highlights the value of their education.
If you get down about the state of American culture, just remember there are still more public libraries in this country than there are McDonalds.
There is only one person who can measure your success. That person is you.
Napoleon could never imagine that some people loved their country as much as he loved his own.
When the founders wrote about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they didn't mean longer vacations and more comfortable hammocks. They meant the pursuit of learning. The pursuit of improvement and excellence. In hard work is happiness.
Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free," Jefferson said, "expects what never was and never will be." And if the gap between the educated and the uneducated in America continues to grow as it is in our time, as fast as or faster than the gap between the rich and the poor, the gap between the educated and the uneducated is going to be of greater consequence and the more serious threat to our way of life. We must not, by any means, misunderstand that.
Read. Read every chance you get. Read to keep growing. Read history. Read poetry. Read for pure enjoyment. Read a book called Life on a Little Known Planet. It's about insects. It will make you feel better.
Teach him to think for himself? Oh, my God, teach him rather to think like other people!
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.
A book is one of the most patient of all man's inventions. Centuries mean nothing to a well-made book. It awaits its destined reader, come when he may, with eager hand and seeing eye. Then occurs one of the great examples of union, that of a man with a book, pleasurable, sometimes fruitful, potentially world-changing, simple; and in a library...witho ut cost to the reader.
I just love learning. I think learning is how you live. The verb of my life is learning.
If you're curious, you'll probably be a good journalist because we follow our curiosity like cats.
I went out of my way to play games I didn't like or find interesting. Those ended up being a lot more informative for me. At home, I have literally thousands of games, and I think of them as pearls of wisdom from my predecessors.
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