It is not my wish to lounge about the college and fatten on a fellowship all my days. I am always trying to look upon a college life as a medium not an end.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire to view college as a means to gain knowledge rather than a lifelong goal.
Thomas Edward Brown emphasizes the importance of perceiving college not as a destination but as a stepping stone towards greater knowledge and personal growth. He reflects a proactive attitude towards education, suggesting that one should seek to utilize their time in college to develop skills and insights that will serve them long after graduation.
In practice
In a graduation speech, one might use this quote to inspire students to continue their quest for knowledge beyond their college years.
When individual members and families immerse themselves in the scriptures regularly and consistently, … other areas of activity will automatically come. Testimonies will increase. Commitment will be strengthened. Families will be fortified. Personal revelation will flow
In school you teach us not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? You grownups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect your words.
All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.
Whatever the skill of any country may be in the sciences, it is from its excellence in polite learning alone that it must expect a character from posterity.
In all the works on pedagogy that ever I read — and they have been many, big, and heavy — I don't remember that any one has advocated a system of teaching by practical jokes, mostly cruel. That, however, describes the method of our great teacher, Experience.
I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.
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