Understood with all that underlies it and follows from it that it Stands in complete and firm relation with what we know that it is Part, a living member, into the whole system of our thought that it When we gain our knowledge in this way that it enters as an integral If he has acquired it by thinking it out for himself. But even so, it is a hundred times more valuable That he could have found it all ready to hand in a book and spared Himself and adding thought to thought and it may sometimes happen Spending a great deal of time and trouble in thinking it over for A man may have discovered some portion of truth or wisdom, after Like running away from Nature to look at a museum of dried plants or On the other hand, to take up a book for the purpose of scaringĪway one's own original thoughts is sin against the Holy Spirit. A man should read only when his own thoughts stagnateĪt their source, which will happen often enough even with the best of Spontaneously and exactly, possesses the only compass by which he can Is guided by his genius, he who thinks for himself, who thinks Serves only to show how many false paths there are, and how widelyĪstray a man may wander if he follows any of them. Means putting the mind into leading-strings. Reading is nothing more than a substitute for thought of one's own. Is related to the thought which springs up in ourselves, as theįossil-impress of some prehistoric plant to a plant as it buds forth Which some unknown visitor has laid aside. To read another's thoughts is like taking the leavings ofĪ meal to which we have not been invited, or putting on the clothes Thoughts for these are the only ones that he can fully and wholly Truth and life in them, they must, after all, be his own fundamental To the book of Nature it is they who have enlightened the world andĬarried humanity further on its way. Thinkers and men of genius are those who have gone straight Men of learning are those who have done their reading in the pages ofĪ book. It is this practice whichĮxplains why erudition makes most men more stupid and silly than theyĪre by nature, and prevents their writings obtaining any measure of The safest way of having no thoughts of one's own is to take up a bookĮvery moment one has nothing else to do. So it is, that much reading deprives the mind of allĮlasticity it is like keeping a spring continually under pressure. Occasion which lead him to think what is appropriate to his nature and The visible world ofĪ man's surroundings does not, as reading does, impress a singleĭefinite thought upon his mind, but merely gives the matter and Own mind, which is determined for him at the time, either by hisĮnvironment or some particular recollection. This or that, though for the moment it may not have the slightestīut when a man thinks for himself, he follows the impulse of his Thus entirely under compulsion from without it is driven to think The seal is to the wax on which it stamps its imprint. Reading forces alien thoughts upon the mind-thoughts which are asįoreign to the drift and temper in which it may be for the moment, as Leads the one to think and the other to read. Intensifies that original difference in the nature of two minds which It is incredible what a different effect is produced upon the mind by thinking for oneself, as compared with reading. This is why most men of learning show so little of it. Objective interest is confined to heads that think by nature to whom thinking is as natural as breathing and they are very rare. The latter comes into play only in things that concern us personally. This interest may be of purely objective kind, or merely subjective. Thinking must be kindled, like a fire by a draught it must be sustained by some interest in the matter in hand.
How long is the book every mans battle wikipedia free#
Reading and learning are things that anyone can do of his own free will but not so thinking. A man cannot turn over anything in his mind unless he knows it he should, therefore, learn something but it is only when he has turned it over that he can be said to know it. For it is only when a man looks at his knowledge from all sides, and combines the things he knows by comparing truth with truth, that he obtains a complete hold over it and gets it into his power. In the same way, a man may have a great mass of knowledge, but if he has not worked it up by thinking it over for himself, it has much less value than a far smaller amount which he has thoroughly pondered. A library may be very large but if it is in disorder, it is not so useful as one that is small but well arranged.