Attainment Quote by T. S. Eliot
“No university ought to be merely a national institution…The universities should have their common ideals, they should have their common obligations toward each other. They should be independent of the governments of the countries in which they are situated. They should not be institutions for the training of an efficient bureaucracy, or for equipping scientists to get the better of foreign scientists; they should stand for the preservation of learning, for the pursuit of truth, and in so far as men are capable of it, the attainment of wisdom.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: The University and Its Role, attributed to T. S. Eliot, 1940s
Universities should be independent, uphold shared ideals, and pursue truth and wisdom rather than serving governmental bureaucracy or competitive science.
In simple terms: Higher education must prioritize learning, truth, and wisdom over political or bureaucratic aims.
Key Takeaway
Support academic freedom and collaborative learning.
Themes
education
independence
truth
wisdom
collaboration
Mood
thoughtful
serious
Type
philosophical
policy-oriented
When to use this quote
- policy making
- university governance
- curriculum design
- research funding
Key Concepts
philosophy of education
public policy
Questions to Reflect On
- How can universities stay independent?
- What responsibilities do they have to society?
A Different Perspective
Political pressures can threaten autonomy.
![“I left that church with rich and royal hatred of the priest as a person, and a loathing for the church as an institution, and I vowed that I would never go inside a church again. [Eugene V. Debs, describing his teenage reaction to a hellfire lecture by a priest]” quote by Eugene V. Debs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/434/eugene-v-debs-7814_church_i-left-that-church-with-rich-and-royal-h_71485.jpg)
![“the ordinary man's experience is chaotic, irregular, fragmentary. [He] falls in love or reads Spinoza, and these two experiences have nothing to do with each other, or with the noise of the typewriter, or the smell of cooking; in the mind of the poet these experiences are always forming new wholes” quote by T. S. Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/18e/t-s-eliot-633_art_the-ordinary-man-s-experience-is-chaotic_93688.jpg)
