Aristotle observed that we become virtuous by performing virtuous acts—that character is cultivated through practice. A similar logic applies to thinking. Intellectual strength isn’t transmitted by lecture or implanted with a diploma. It is built the same way that the figure skater builds a routine or the running back learns to explode through a crack in the line—repetition after repetition, failure after failure, with no shortcut available and no machine that can stand in.
~ Dan Rockmore via The New Yorker

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