In its youth a people produce mythology and poetry; in its decadence, philosophy and logic. - Will Durant

Youth is learning to read (which is all that one learns in school), and is learning where and how to find what he may later need to know (which is the best of the arts that he acquires in college). Nothing learned from a book is worth anything until it is used and verified in life; only then does it begin to affect behavior and desire. It is Life that educates, and perhaps love more than anything else in life.

In philosophy, as in politics, the longest distance between two points is a straight line.

"It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment. The present is merely the past rolled up and concentrated in this second of time.As quoted in "The Gentle Philosopher" Will Durant"