There's No Investment as Worthwhile as Knowledge
You can give your kids material things, but the best investments are something else entirely. The best investment is anything that gives them knowledge and helps them get through life on their own.
It’s just like one of Benjamin Franklin’s most famous quotes says: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” It’s like an investment in yourself and others, and it’s the most valuable thing you could ever have.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal was a Spanish scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1906 for research on the nervous system. He also came up with the idea that the human brain is like a coin-making machine. If you put in impure metal, you’ll just get junk. But if you put in gold, you’ll get a legally valid coin.
This idea is a perfect summary of why it’s important to feed your brain well. The best food are books and any knowledge that will help you understand more about the world.
Our knowledge about the world is limited, but our ignorance about it is infinite. The basic idea here is that we don’t know very much, but at the same time, it’s amazing how much we do know. What’s even more amazing than that is how so little knowledge can lead to so much power.
“It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.”
-Ann Landers-
Knowledge will set you free
Since the times of Socrates, it’s been clear that knowledge can bring you freedom from ignorance. But only wise men had access to knowledge in the ancient world.
Now just about anyone can create and distribute information, thanks to the Internet. We’ve created an unlimited network of knowledge.
In the modern era, we’ve done away with the physical, geographical, economic, and social barriers to self-education. All it takes to hold understanding in your hands now is the desire.
But if that’s the case, why are there fewer people reading, and why is there less investment in culture? It seems like we’ve gotten rid of all the barriers except the most important one: realizing that only knowledge will make us free.
Socrates didn’t see himself as wise because he knew more than the people around him. He saw himself that way because he was aware of his own ignorance. So before he ever made a decision or said anything, he would always make sure of it first.
He was so convinced that understanding can free us that he was also convinced that if people ever understood what goodness and justice were, they’d always choose that path.
He thought that no one would consciously choose evil, and if they did, it would be out of ignorance. To put it another way, if a baker doesn’t make good bread, it’s because they don’t know how to. It’s not because they want to make bad bread.
“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”
-Bertrand Russell-
Knowledge is the light by which you shall find your way
“Knowledge is the light by which you shall find your way.” This quote from Robert Fisher, author of The Knight in Rusty Armor, has an optimistic, constructive outlook on human potential.
We could say that knowledge means discovering your own capabilities and limitations. It also involves looking for how to overcome those limitations.
Knowledge is the light by which you shall find your way. That means that the more things you know, the more light you’ll have inside you. And in the end, nature has given us all the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.
“He alone is poor who does not possess knowledge.”
-The Talmud-