Full Idea
As though your turban or your clothes were on fire, so with a sense of urgency should you apply your intellect to the comprehension of the truths.
Gist of Idea
Pursue truth with the urgency of someone whose clothes are on fire
Source
Ashvaghosha (Saundaranandakavya [c.50], XVI)
Book Reference
'Buddhist Scriptures', ed/tr. Conze,Edward [Penguin 1959], p.115
A Reaction
The best philosophers need no such urging. I retain a romantic view that we should be 'natural' in these things. See Plato's views in Idea 2153 and 1638. However, maybe I should be confronted with this quotation every morning when I awake.
Related Ideas
Idea 2153 Compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind [Plato]
Idea 1638 Didactic education is hard work and achieves little [Plato]