. . . the weal of the race, and the cause of humanity, here and now, are enough To give life meaning and death as well.
Edgar Lee MastersRead
To this generation I would say: Memorize some bit of verse of truth or beauty.
Interpretation
The quote encourages young people to internalize memorable lines of truth or beauty.
Edgar Lee Masters emphasizes the importance of memorizing words that convey beauty or truth, suggesting that doing so enriches the mind and provides a source of inspiration and reflection. This practice not only cultivates a deeper appreciation for language and art but also serves as a guiding principle for life, reminding the individual of essential values and aesthetic pleasures.
In practice
A teacher might use this quote during a poetry reading to inspire students to appreciate literature.
. . . the weal of the race, and the cause of humanity, here and now, are enough To give life meaning and death as well.
The tongue may be an unruly member-- But silence poisons the soul.
Genius is a bend in the creek where bright water has gathered, and which mirrors the trees, the sky and the banks. It just does that because it is there and the scenery is there. Talent is a fine mirror with a silver frame, with the name of the owner engraved on the back.
To love is to find your own soul Through the soul of the beloved one.
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness, But life without meaning is the torture Of restlessness and vague desire-It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.
And I never started to plow in my life That some one did not stop in the road And take me away to a dance or picnic. I ended up with forty acres; I ended up with a broken fiddle— And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories, And not a single regret.
When I was coaching I always considered myself a teacher. Teachers tend to follow the laws of learning better than coaches who do not have any teaching background. A coach is nothing more than a teacher. I used to encourage anyone who wanted to coach to get a degree in teaching so they could apply those principles to athletics.
If [a student's] college’s endowment portfolio has fossil-fuel stock, then their educations are being subsidized by investments that guarantee they won’t have much of a planet on which to make use of their degree.
Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?
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.
I engage my subjects in conversation, patterned after psychiatric questioning, with the aim of discovering something about the reasoning underlying their right but especially their wrong answers.
I went to college because I didn't have anywhere else to go and it was a fabulous hang. And while I was there I was exposed to this world that I didn't know was possible.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.