There Is No More Profitable Investment Than Knowledge

You can leave your children material goods, but the best investment is one that provides them with knowledge so that they can move forward on their own. One of Benjamin Franklin’s most famous quotes reflects this idea; “There is no more profitable investment than that of knowledge.” Investment for oneself and for others, knowledge is the greatest power that we can acquire.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1906 in recognition of his work on the structure of the nervous system, suggested that the human brain is like a coin-minting machine. If you put impure metal in it, you will get dross; if you cast gold, you will get sterling money. This phrase perfectly sums up the importance of feeding our brain well, based on books and knowledge that help us understand the world better.

Our knowledge is necessarily finite, while our ignorance is necessarily infinite. The bottom line is that we know very little, and yet it is amazing how much we do know. And even more amazing is that such a small knowledge can give so much power.

In this new era, what will set you free is knowledge, not work

Since the time of Socrates it was clear that knowledge gives us freedom and frees us from ignorance, but in ancient times only the wise could access part of the knowledge. Now anyone is a creator and distributor of information, thanks to the use of the new channels offered by the Internet, generating a network of unlimited knowledge.

In this new era we have eliminated physical, geographic, economic and social barriers to acquiring education. Anyone who wants it can have understanding in their hands. This being the case, why are there fewer and fewer readers or less investment in culture? It seems that we have eliminated all barriers except the most important, knowing that only knowledge will make us free.

Socrates presumed that he was wise not because he knew more than his other contemporaries, but because he was aware of his own ignorance and before making a decision or saying something, he made sure. Socrates was so convinced that understanding makes us free that it seemed obvious to him that if men came to understand what was good or what was just, they would choose the good and the just. No one would consciously choose evil. Those who choose evil do so out of ignorance. If a baker makes bad bread, it is because he does not know how to make bread and not because he wants to make bad bread.

Knowledge is the light that will illuminate our path

“Knowledge is the light that will illuminate our path.” This phrase by Robert Fisher, author of the book The Knight in Rusty Armor conveys an optimistic and constructive vision of the potentialities of the human being. Knowledge is the discovery of one’s capacities and limitations, as well as the search for possible solutions to overcome them.

A person cannot learn and run at the same time. It must stay in one place for a while. In life we ​​will find the way out only when we have learned what we had to learn. 

Knowledge is the light that will illuminate our path. This means that the more things we know, the more light there will be within us.