What did Benjamin Franklin mean with this quote?

Question

I read a quote by Benjamin Franklin a long time ago. and I found it again. And I thought about its meaning. And I reached two possible conclusions.
The quote is:
"Genius without education is like silver in the mine."

Possible meaning Nº1 - Education here plays the role of the miner. The one that helps the genius to flourish. To come out of the mine. Since without it...it remains in the mine unseen forever.

Possible Meaning nº2 - Genius without education is a gold mine. It has tons to offer because it hasn't been messed with by education. It is untouched, therefore giving the purest silver to the world.

I hope you understand my metaphors.
What do you think he meant?
I support the 2nd conclusion.

Answer 1

It means that you can be a genius, but unless you are educated you will never realize the full potential of your genius. It means that as silver in a mine is valuable, it is more useful and more valuable OUT of the mine.......the genius needs to be refined by education just as the silver needs to be refined once it is mined.

Answer 2

I think he meant that in order to use ones intelligence to its fullest potential you need the information and knowledge that comes with a good education. To say that it is like "silver in the mine" is saying that the silver, or the genius, while very valuable, has thus far been untapped. It's not doing anybody any good. Once silver is mined, that is when the owner can reap the value and benefits. So to with genius, once fed by education, the brain in question can put the gift to good use.

Answer 3

A silver in the mine is unpolished and unrefined but it's pure. Genius without education is pure but will not flourish without the proper assistance. As they say, a genius is born and not made but that genius is useless if there is noone to help him realize it. In other words, education is still needed to make that genius shine. To sum it up, education is very essential whether you're a genius or not.

Answer 4

No 1. Genius without an education remains undiscovered.

Think about the millions of people around the world who have no access to even the most basic education. Some of them could be geniuses, but we'll never know because they don't have the opportunity to be discovered.

Answer 5

I'm going with meaning number one, although certainly both interpretations have value (and, it may not matter what HE meant by it, we can use it however we want).

Based on my knolwedge of Franklin and of the times he lived in (they were more into taming the land and bringing out the riches in the land that providence had provided) I think he was implying that powerful genius uneducated could never come to light, could never do anything in the actual world.

It is education that provides tools for genius to explain, communicate, and harness incite.

Answer 6

Well, gold doesn't give silver, so at best meaning two is a mixed metaphor. Even if Franklin meant number one, which i believe he did, Number two is a valid statement about institutionalized schooling. That form of education is indeed often death to curiosity or even the spirit, and typically causes kids to think of learning as something they only do in school. Unschooling is our path based upon the truths in your second statement.

Answer 7

It's referring to people who have the aptitude and those who actually apply it. A lot of people have the potential to be great, but they never tap into it.

For example, if you want to be successful in business, sitting around and watching television is the equivalent of being a genius but not tapping into your potential. Sitting around watching television is like all that potential silver or gold as the application of those skills and your human body would be the mine.

Your second meaning sort of has the idea. You should think more like fertile soil. Your brain has fertile soil. However, until you actually plant seeds and grow stuff in that soil, that's all it is. Soil.

This site where people answer questions as experts is a great example. You have people who give their advice on stuff. However, some of the advice you read is sometimes a little off because it's based off of their level of education and "how deeply they've gone into extracting the silver from the mine."

For example, let's say you were a famous historical figure. Imagine if I went around giving supposed historical facts about your history, childhood, and career. However, I didn't really do any deep research about you. My information about you will probably off.

However, your parents, siblings, or best friends who know all about you would be experts on you. So if they gave advice on you as a famous historical figure, their information about you is more accurate.

Why? Because they took the time to know you. They worked with you, hung out with you, talked to you, found out what your likes and dislikes are, and have direct experience.

In terms of me trying to claim I'm an expert on the subject of "you," my "genius" level isn't that deep.

You apply the same model to just about any subject and whether someone is a genius at Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Sociology, and Psychology.

There are a lot of smart people out there, but until they actually do research or study on a particular subject, that's the silver in the mine that hasn't been extracted.

For example, Bill Gates is considered a Genius. His field of expertise is computers. That's his tapped silver mine. He's got other silver mines that he could tap into. Who knows what kind of intellectual silver mines he could've uncovered if he applied all that know-how into stem cell research, NBA, the U.S. Chess Federation, or the Fashion Industry.

Bill Gates hasn't tapped into the Fashion Industry Silver Mine. He could if he wanted. If he has inspired to start doing research on improving the Fashion Industry, he could probably uncover some really great things that would positively the affect the Fashion Industry if he poured a couple billion dollars of research into that.

However, he doesn't. So that's an untapped Silver Mine.

Another example would be starting your own business? Do you have your own business? If you do, good for you. If you don't, that would be a Silver Mine that you haven't tapped into yet. There's all that potential income you could tap into as an Independent Business Owner, but until you take those first steps to forging the business, that's an untapped resource or silver that remains embedded in that mine.

Your First Possible Meaning has merit, but I'd tweak it a bit:

- Your Genius you unlock is the Silver
- Your Conscious Mind or Efforts would be the Miner
- Your Tools would be the Researcha nd Education you use to tap into it

If you have poor education and little understanding of whatever you're trying to tap into, those would be poor Mining Tools. It would take you longer to pick away at that mine.

However, if you're using Advanced Technology and really good tools, you could accomplish mining the silver faster and with less energy than with someone who is using badly constructed tools.

This comes back to what your parents, educators, and people who influence you have handed you as tools to work with that allow you to tap that vast resource in your mind.

Answer 8

A genius needs an education to fulfill his or her potential just like silver needs to come out of the mine to fulfill its potential. He meant the first meaning.

Answer 9

Albert Einstein said: The education is what remains after we forget all we learned in school. He wanted to say that a genius is better when he is not corrupted by other people

Answer 10

Albert Einstein once said my education is the major obstacle to learn, A "Genius without education" is PURE (like silver in mine) he had no prejudgment and filters.