When I was younger I used to be impressed by people who could come out with a quotation from someone famous for every occasion. It is a consequence of the private education in the UK where the elements of debating are well taught and practiced, which in turn is a training for the legal profession or for Parliament. And yes it begins that early because everything we do begins when we are learning the fastest and our brains are at their most adept.
It is one of the ironies of education that if it worked, all we would ever do is continue learning. The needs of the country and of our independent lives means that education has to bring in limitations to itself and we do that by propelling ourselves into careers. In most careers where the brain is actively used education continues as a secondary activity, and in manual careers where the individual brain is hungry for something more education is sought and found in disparate places.
But the careers where imagination is allowed to rule are very few, and those of us who crave minds without borders, thoughts without limits, don’t fill our minds with what others have said, but say things worth repeating.