A steel key tied with a dark green bow stands in a wooden block beside small leaves on pale grey.

Original artwork, not a still

Thomas Huxley

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker suggests the most useful outcome of education is self-discipline: being able to make yourself do what needs doing, at the right moment, even when you don't feel like it. Knowledge matters, but the ability to act is ranked above it.

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