A great empire and little minds go ill together.
Edmund BurkeRead
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading requires thought and consideration, just as eating requires digestion to gain nourishment.
This quote by Edmund Burke emphasizes the importance of critical thinking when it comes to reading. Merely consuming information without taking the time to reflect on it is akin to eating food without digesting it; you may go through the motions, but you won't gain any nourishment or understanding from the experience. Reflection allows us to process what we've read, leading to deeper comprehension and the ability to apply knowledge effectively.
Themes
ReadingReflectionUnderstandingKnowledgeEducation
In practice
Example use cases
In a book club discussion about the importance of understanding texts, this quote can highlight the need for reflection.
More from Edmund Burke
All quotes βFlattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
Edmund BurkeRead
The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.
Edmund BurkeRead
Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
Edmund BurkeRead
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund BurkeRead
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.
Edmund BurkeRead
Similar quotes
Pretending is not just play. Pretending is imagined possibility. Pretending, or acting, is a very valuable life skill and we do it all the time.
Meryl StreepRead
You cannot make thousands of universities or hundreds of thousands of professors, but with technology and the Internet you can have great courses and make a digital university.
Carlos SlimRead
The most important skill to acquire now is learning how to learn.
John NaisbittRead
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free," Jefferson said, "expects what never was and never will be." And if the gap between the educated and the uneducated in America continues to grow as it is in our time, as fast as or faster than the gap between the rich and the poor, the gap between the educated and the uneducated is going to be of greater consequence and the more serious threat to our way of life. We must not, by any means, misunderstand that.
David McculloughRead
Like our physical bodies, our memory becomes out of shape. As children, we are constantly learning new experiences, but by the time we reach our 20s, we start to lead a more sedentary life both mentally and physically. Our lives become routine, and we stop challenging our brains, and our memory starts to suffer.
Tony BuzanRead