The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.
Interpretation
Reading good books allows us to engage with the thoughts and ideas of great thinkers from history.
This quote by Rene Descartes emphasizes the value of literature as a means of connecting with the intelligence and perspectives of exceptional individuals from the past. By immersing ourselves in the writings of influential authors, we enter into a dialogue that transcends time, gaining insights and wisdom that can enlighten our own thoughts and lives.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of education, one could quote Descartes to illustrate how books enhance our understanding of the world.
If we possessed a thorough knowledge of all the parts of the seed of any animal (e.g. man), we could from that alone, be reasons entirely mathematical and certain, deduce the whole conformation and figure of each of its members, and, conversely if we knew several peculiarities of this conformation, we would from those deduce the nature of its seed.
Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.
Before examining this more carefully and investigating its consequences, I want to dwell for a moment in the contemplation of God, to ponder His attributes in me, to see, admire, and adore the beauty of His boundless light, insofar as my clouded insight allows. Believing that the supreme happiness of the other life consists wholly of the contemplation of divine greatness, I now find that through less perfect contemplation of the same sort I can gain the greatest joy available in this life.
I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.
History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the government tells you. But knowing a bit of history--while it would not absolutely prove the government was lying in a given instance--might make you skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you would find out the truth.
When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one's brain becomes encumbered with a lot of bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use.
The most important thing is to make a percussive instrument a singing instrument. Teachers should stress this aspect in their instruction, but it seems that very few of them actually do.
Every time you finish a book, you have a terrible feeling that there's just never going to be another one. But fortunately, so far, the next one has always shown up.
I became a teacher all right. I wanted to become a teacher because I had a misconception about it. I didn't know that I'd be going into - when I first became a high school teacher in New York, that I'd be going into a battle zone, and no one prepared me for that.
One reason education undoes belief is its teaching of evolution; Darwin's own drift from orthodoxy to agnosticism was symptomatic. Martin Lings is probably right in saying that more cases of loss of religious faith are to be traced to the theory of evolution ... than to anything else.
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