A little of everything. Since we cannot be universal and know all there is to know about everything, we must know a little of everything. For it is very much better to know something about everything than to know all about something. This universality is the finest thing. If we can have both kinds of knowledge, better still. But if we have to choose, this must be our choice. The world knows this, and makes this choice, for the world is often a good judge.
- Blaise Pascal, The Pensees, 42
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There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about ‘isms’ and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. |
AuthorMy name is still Jonah, and I happen to have a love of reading. Here are quotes I come across in books I read that I find interesting and encouraging. Archives
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