The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power, or of the hands. For have not some books continued twenty-five hundred years or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter; during which time infinite palaces, temples, castles, and cities have been decayed and demolished?
-Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
The book you don’t read, won’t help.
I keep six honest serving-men
They taught me all I knew;
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
This stanza is about the author’s way of learning about the world. His “serving men” are the questions he asks of the things around him: “what?” “why?” “when?” “how?” “where?” and “who?” These “men”/questions are honest because this is the best way to objectively learn the truth. The speaker seems open to learning new things and seeking the truth. He does put the word “knew” in the past tense, though, and says that he gives the questioning “a rest,” which leads us to the next stanza.
I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men.
In these four lines, the speaker essentially says that his questioning brain doesn’t actually function anymore, but is pretty much always “resting.” He no longer questions at all; he simply accepts his foundation of knowledge and does not challenge new claims or information as they come along. This is a satirical way of criticizing adults who become complacent about the world around them and become entirely “busy” and caught up in the motions of the daily grind without stopping to think about the significance of their actions or the events of the world around them.
But different folk have different views;
I know a person small—
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends’em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes—
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!
The second half of the second stanza and the final stanza are both talking about the refreshing curiosity of children. The speaker says he has become too lazy to take an active interest in the world around him, but his daughter (or some little girl he knows) has not. She is always looking around her and asking questions. This is like the two-year-old who can’t seem to stop asking “but why?” Saying that “different folk have different views” suggests that the speaker sees the child’s young toddler perspective as equal to his own, perhaps even superior.
Overall, the poem is a reflection on the wisdom of children (who see the world around them with fresh eyes) and the stagnation of the adult spirit as life goes on.
Tariq is discussing. Toggle Comments
Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing.
I have somewhere see it observed, that we should make the same use of a book that the bee does of a flower; she steals sweets from it, but does not injure it.
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you’ll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?
The sun above the mountain’s head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.
Books! ’tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There’s more of wisdom in it.
And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.
She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.
-James Russell Lowell
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
-John F. Kennedy
Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
As in everything, nature is the best instructor.Adolf Hitler
Actually challenges or failures can be stepping stones or stumbling blocks on the road to success. It is all a matter of how we look at it. You can see a glass as half empty or you can see a glass as half full. One will bring you enthusiasm and the other will bring you discouragement. We can apply this principle to every aspect of our life. But what is of real importance is that we know that we are doing the right thing, that we learn from our mistakes. A mistake is only a mistake if we fail to learn from it. Real leaders make many, many mistakes, but they do not repeat them. They learn from them, they remain enthusiastic; they remain determined for the goal.Radhanath Swami
Success isn’t something that just happens – success is learned, success is practiced and then it is shared.Sparky Anderson
I’ve learnt that something constructive comes from every defeat.Tom Landry