“One of the best ways of enslaving a people is to keep them from education… The second way of enslaving a people is to suppress the sources of information, not only by burning books, but by controlling all the other ways in which ideas are transmitted.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
My Day (Primary source)
Collections of Roosevelt’s syndicated newspaper column written six days weekly from 1935-1962, offering accessible, diary-like observations on daily life, politics, civil rights, and current events that reached millions of American readers.
“In the democracies of the world, the passion for freedom of speech and of thought is always accentuated when there is an effort anywhere to keep ideas away from people and to prevent them from making their own decisions. One of the best ways of enslaving a people is to keep them from education and thus make it impossible for them to understand what is going on in the world as a whole.
In the case of Germany, however, the people have always had the tools of learning. They have been a highly educated nation. Hitler had to use other methods, and he chose to go back to the practices of medieval days and burn the books whose philosophies were opposed to his. He knew that if these thoughts reached the people, they might stir up unrest and opposition to his own regime.
The second way of enslaving a people is to suppress the sources of information, not only by burning books, but by controlling all the other ways in which ideas are transmitted. Hitler used all of these methods and gained his ends within Germany for a time. In the end, and that end seems to be drawing closer every day, the people whom Hitler has enslaved will have to come in contact again with the world of free expression and thought, then Hitler will have to face the judgment of his own people.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Primary source“There never has been security. No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Primary source“The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Primary source“Human resources are the most valuable assets the world has. They are all needed desperately.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Primary sourceMore quotes by Eleanor Roosevelt →
“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today. It’s been that way all this year. It’s been that way so many times. All of this war is that way.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“I am a biography nut myself. And I think when you’re trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie them into the lives and personalities of the people who developed them. I think you learn economics better if you make Adam Smith your friend. That sounds funny, making friends among the eminent dead, but if you go through life making friends with the eminent dead who had the right ideas, I think it will work better for you in life and work better in education. It’s way better than just giving the basic concepts.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day, and at the end of the day—if you live long enough—like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.”
— Charlie Munger Primary sourceEnslavement Education Knowledge