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Question:
what’s the purpose of reading classic books?
It’s to get beyond newspaper and magazines. Most people read newspaper and watch TV and if they want to get profound they read magazine. But the people who write magazine have read these books so if you really want to get back to sources of things you have to read the books of philosophy which is where the ideas that get spread into the world first originated and where they first originated is where there are most deeply and most sharply often stated so it’s to get back to the first source of things and the reason for doing that is so that you don’t depend on other people its the kind of route to being independent or even free a free person with a sense of free is someone who doesn’t live off another person’s word or doesn’t live by the authority of this Society in our society the authority of public opinion and the way to achieve this independence is by reading especially the great books the classic books.
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— Harvey Mansfield
ong xiao yun 