Educational Quotations

There are just too many quotes regarding the value of education for me to NOT try compiling a few! If you find one that you think is especially inspiring, please send it to me along with documentation - then see your name in lights!

• Stolen from my classmate Susie Nichols' Facebook page:
  "Knowledge is only rumor until it's in the muscle" (sounds like the reason for Field Trips in Geology classes!!)

• From my friend Dave Rivers:
  "More than the profit of money or the benefit of nutrition, the most important thing in life is learning. No matter how famous you are, if you do not have the heart to learn, you are not worthy of respect. One who can continue to learn throughout their entire life, this is one whom we should all respect." Daisaku Ikeda (click through to Ikeda's website to see many more...)

• Another especially pertinent quote from Daisaku Ikeda:
  "Never for an instant forget the effort to renew your life, to build yourself anew. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway of life itself. This is not an easy task. Indeed, it may be the most severely challenging struggle there is. For opening the door to your own life is in the end more difficult than opening the door to all the mysteries of the universe."

Lastly, sent to me by my graduate advisor, Kent Condie:
Letters to Ann Landers:
 
This letter, my first ever to an advice columnist, was sparked by your column about the geologist's wife who asked, "Are all geologists the very embodiment of all the virtues and qualities that are universally admired in humankind? Have they alone, of all the professions, achieved a state of grace far beyond that ever speculated by history's most hopeful philosophers and theologians?" The answer is ABSOLUTELY? Geologists ARE a different breed. They are wise, often strikingly handsome and beautiful, kind to small children and animals, sensitive to the subtleties of everything around them, and when it comes to relationships, well, Mom, my three sisters-in-law and one-brother-in-law, and my two aunts and two uncles seemed always to have a serene, deeply satisfied look of complete contentment. If only I could have hitched up with one too. Signed, A Jealous and Bitterly Resentful Wife of an Engineer.
 
Ann Landers Replies:
 
Dear JEALOUS: I've been swamped with letters from the lucky spouses and relatives of geologists. They've given me a real education, and made me feel a little jealous too. Read on:
 
PORTLAND: Geologists ARE different. And I say "Vive la difference!" I thought maybe I was the luckiest person ever to have been born, but I have found that other geologist's spouses have similar experiences. My geologist husband has more sensitivity and consideration than 10 "normal" men, selflessly making life safe, loving and meaningful for others. I am so lucky to have this man in my life!
 
DENVER: Ann, the best piece of advice you could pass along to your readers is this: if you can't be one yourself, do whatever it takes to associate with as many geologists as you can. My life has been rich, so meaningful, since I divorced the egghead engineer I was married to for 12 years. If I weren't so ecstatic nearly all my waking hours, I would be in despair over all that wasted time. But in retrospect, I would have traded fifty years with "Ms. Pocket-Protector" for just a few weeks of the blissful existence I have with my big lovable rockhound. She has shown me all the richness that life holds. I spend hours just basking in the warmth of her vast knowledge of life, the universe, and everything. She has so much beauty and understanding. And she's always ready to share that gift. She's able to explain the most incredibly complex concepts in a way that helps you understand, and makes you feel just plain good all over. Any how can anyone be so perfect, yet so warm and sensitive to the needs of others? Think of the world we would have if everyone were a geologist!

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