Quotes

Zik on Education

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“The African should go beyond the veneer of knowledge. Ability to quote Shakespeare or Byron or Chaucer does not indicate original scholarship. The capacity to know what the periphrastic conjunction is, or to solve the Pythagorean problem, or understand the principle of heat, light and sound, or to translate Aramaic, or to know the important dates of British history, does not indicate true academic scholarship. These are the superficialities of a decadent educational system. These do not make for a dynamic social order. They are by-products of the imitation complex which Gabriel Tarde expounds excellently in one of his books.

Originality is the essence of true scholarship. Creativity is the soul of true scholar. Initiative, emulation and the urge to be intellectually honest are the earmarks of research and academic freedom. Heirs and heiresses of the New Africa must now consecrate themselves for scholarly research into all aspects of world society in general and Africa in particular.”

– Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (Excerpt from a speech delivered at the Methodist Boys’ High School, Lagos, in November, 1934, on his return from the United States en-route to Onitsha, his home town).

Postscript: How far have we come, what has changed in 82 years? When, and how can we change?

Find the rest of the speech here, if you will.

Thomas Jefferson on Constitutions

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“Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President (1743-1826)

From Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath

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“…There are real limits to what evil and misfortune can accomplish. If you take away the gift of reading, you create the gift of listening. if you bomb a city, you leave behind death and destruction. But you create a community of remote misses. If you take away a mother or a father, you cause suffering and despair. But one time in ten, out of that despair rises an indomitable force. You see the giant and the shepherd in the Valley of Elah and your eye is drawn to the man with the sword and shield and the glittering armor. But so much of what is beautiful and valuable in the world comes from the shepherd, who has more strength and purpose than we ever imagine.”

You don’t get grades for…

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You don’t get grades for resiliency, curiosity, agility, resourcefulness, pattern recognition and tenacity. You just get successful.

Yet another entrepreneurship..erm..Commencement speech from Steve Blank, adorable, white-haired Steve, someone I never heard of until recently. Know the Lean Launchpad? Check out the Udacity course How to Build A Startup at Udacity.