Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', '21: Book of Ecclesiastes' and 'Warrant and Proper Function'

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2 ideas

25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / b. Education principles
Books are endless, and study is wearisome [Anon (Ecc)]
     Full Idea: Of making many books there is no end; and much study is weariness of the flesh.
     From: Anon (Ecc) (21: Book of Ecclesiastes [c.200 BCE], 12.12)
     A reaction: Does anyone share my occasional sinking heart on entering a large library or bookshop? I truly believe that there is nothing better in the world than books. And yet, and yet...
Learned men gain more in one day than others do in a lifetime [Posidonius]
     Full Idea: In a single day there lies open to men of learning more than there ever does to the unenlightened in the longest of lifetimes.
     From: Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]), quoted by Seneca the Younger - Letters from a Stoic 078
     A reaction: These remarks endorsing the infinite superiority of the educated to the uneducated seem to have been popular in late antiquity. It tends to be the religions which discourage great learning, especially in their emphasis on a single book.