QuoteProject
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.
Benjamin Disraeli
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Teaching someone a skill is more valuable than providing temporary help, but faith alone may not provide practical solutions.

This quote emphasizes the importance of self-sufficiency and practical skills over temporary fixes, suggesting that while providing immediate aid is necessary, the greater gift lies in empowering individuals with knowledge and tools that sustain them in the long run. Additionally, it critiques the idea that mere faith or doctrine can substitute for actionable skills needed to navigate life's challenges effectively.

Themes

FishingTeachingSelf-SufficiencyReligionSkill

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a presentation about education reform.

More from Benjamin Disraeli

Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Grief is the agony of an instant. The indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.
Benjamin DisraeliRead

Similar quotes

If your heart is large enough to envelop your adversaries, you can see right through them and avoid their attacks. And once you envelop them, you will be able to guide them along the path indicated to you by heaven and earth.
Morihei UeshibaRead
And thou my minde aspire to higher things;_x000D_ _x000D_ Grow rich in that which never taketh rust.
Philip SidneyRead
And this is a grave responsibility, projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe.
Audre LordeRead
In the search [of a deal], we adopt the same attitude one might find appropriate in looking for a spouse: It pays to be active, interested, and open-minded, but it does not pay to be in a hurry.
Warren BuffettRead
While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes that right important.
Walter LippmannRead
It is a tricky business to know when you should set goals and objectives in order to achieve a focus, and when you would be better off dealing with the acceptance and management of your current reality so you can later step into new directions and responsibilities with greater stability and clarity. Only you will know the answer to that, and only in the moment.
David AllenRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.