For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth.
Interpretation
The mind needs stimulation and inspiration, not mere information, to foster independent thinking.
This quote by Plutarch emphasizes that the process of learning and understanding is not about just accumulating knowledge, as one would fill a bottle, but rather about igniting a spark of curiosity and critical thinking. It suggests that true education involves nurturing an intrinsic motivation to explore the truth and think for oneself, akin to kindling a fire that leads to creative and independent thought.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about innovative teaching methods in education.
Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.
It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
Come back with your shield - or on it
The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
One of the biggest ways to level the playing field is to give all young people the same context on what opportunities are out there. And that means touching on some of the questions that are a little taboo in society: How much money do you make? What are your stresses? What would you do differently if you could?
Teachers teach because they care. Teaching young people is what they do best. It requires long hours, patience, and care.
You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.
America's future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.
Ours is an age of pedagogy. Anxious parents instruct their children more and more, at younger and younger ages, until they're reading books to babies in the womb.
The reason why books endure is because there are enough people who like them. It's the only reason why books last.
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