We do need knowledge. And perhaps in a thousand years we might pick smaller cliffs to jump off. The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.
Interpretation
Knowledge is essential for growth, and it helps us recognize our past mistakes.
Ray Bradbury emphasizes the importance of knowledge in informing our decisions and actions. By reflecting on our histories and the folly of past choices, we can aspire to make better decisions in the future, possibly avoiding the most dangerous risks as we learn and evolve over time.
In practice
In a lecture about the importance of education, one might quote Bradbury to highlight the value of learning from past mistakes.
I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)
I never went to college, so I went to the library.
There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.
I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
The first thing a writer should be is - excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health.
You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.
Genius is rare because the means of becoming one have not been available
Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind.
I like old men. They can be wonderful bastards because they have nothing to lose. The only people who can be themselves are babies and old bastards.
Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people - which is what I think it does mean - then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good. It isn't wrong for an actor to want to act his part as well as it can possibly be acted, but the wish to have his name in bigger type than the other actors is a bad one.
However many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?
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