Kahlil Gibran | on Teaching
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among her followers, gives not of her wisdom but rather of her faith and her lovingness.
If she is indeed wise she does not bid you enter the house of her wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
The astronomer may speak to you of her understanding of space, but she cannot give you her understanding.
The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but she cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
And she who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but she cannot conduct you thither.
For the vision of one woman lends not its wings to another woman.
And even as each one of you stands alone in knowledge of wisdom, so must each one of you be alone in knowledge of wisdom and in wisdom’s understanding of the earth.