Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their school masters would have wished
Johann Gottlieb FichteRead
There are two great classes of men: the people and the scholars, the men of science. For the former, nothing exists but that which directly leads to action. It is for the latter to see beyond. They are the free artists who create the future and its history, the conscious architects of the world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote distinguishes between practical individuals who act and scholars or scientists who envision and shape the future.
In this quote, Fichte articulates the division between two groups of people: those focused on immediate action and empirical results, and those who think critically and imaginatively to influence what is to come. He emphasizes the importance of scholars as the architects of the future, suggesting that while action is vital, it is the deeper understanding and creativity of scholars that truly shapes society and its history.
Themes
ScienceActionFutureScholarsCreativityHistory
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech emphasizing the importance of education and innovation.
More from Johann Gottlieb Fichte
All quotes βBy mere burial man arrives not at bliss; and in the future life, throughout its whole infinite range, they will seek for happiness as vainly as they sought it here, who seek it in aught else than that which so closely surrounds them here - the Infinite
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Upon the progress of knowledge the whole progress of the human race is immediately dependent: he who retards that, hinders this also.
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By philosophy the mind of man comes to itself, and from henceforth rests on itself without foreign aid, and is completely master of itself, as the dancer of his feet, or the boxer of his hands.
Johann Gottlieb FichteRead
What sort of philosophy one chooses depends on what sort of person one is.
Johann Gottlieb FichteRead
The schools must fashion the person, and fashion him in such a way that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will.
Johann Gottlieb FichteRead
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