Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Good quote on education

From philosopher John Alexander Smith (1863–1939), who gave the following advice to Oxford University students in 1914:

Gentlemen, you are now about to embark on a course of studies which will occupy you for two years. Together, they form a noble adventure. But I would like to remind you of an important point. Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in after life, save only this, that if you work hard and intelligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education.

I wish more people in this society could distinguish when a man is talking rot.

No comments:

Post a Comment