quote question?

Question

What are the meaning of those quotes? THX ^^

1"We are students of words: we are shut up in a schools and colleges and recitation-rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing."

2"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do"

3"The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out."

Answer 1

1"We are students of words: we are shut up in a schools and colleges and recitation-rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing."
Means that a lot of students are not given enough experience during their school years. They are just trained to memorise, recite, and remember all the formulae. They are only taught the memorisation; not the application part of learning. This quote criticises on the process of learning which is not holisitic.

2"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do"
Means when we do something that we have always dreaded to do, we will feel more pride because we know that we have beaten our own selves by beating our own fear.

3"The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out."
Means that the most important things in a society is not the size of nation or the population; but it is the quality of the man in the country. This quote signifies the importance of personality in people.

Well, I hope I have helped.

Answer 2

You really should ask yourself what these quotes mean for you.

1) There is a difference between "book smarts"-experience and "street smarts" or "job experience".

2) Take risks. You learn from it. How do you think the high counsel got to be high counsel?

3) The values of a country (and their countrymen) are weighed more heavily than economic productivity.

Answer 3

Everyone will have a different opinion on how they interpret them but my opinion on them is:
1 - You don't learn from people telling you, you learn by experience but most people (students) don't get experience until they actually start life outside of schools, etc.
2 - The guy saying it approves that you shouldn't not do something because you've got a bit scared, it generally means more because you are afraid.
3 - It's not the quantity of the people that matter but the quality