Particular bits of knowledge are nothing, because they are made up of what Dr. Robert Hutchins once called rapidly aging facts. Principles and method are everything.

Do not make the mistake of holding your idea close to your chest… Submit it to the criticism of the judicious.

A good idea has self-expanding qualities. It stimulates those who see it to add to it.

An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.

The habit of mind which leads to a search for relationships between facts becomes of the highest importance in the production of ideas.

And so, while perhaps not all God's chilluns got wings, enough have for each of us to hope that we may be among those that have.

Thus, words being symbols of ideas, we can collect ideas by collecting words. The fellow who said he tried reading the dictionary but couldn't get the hang of the story simply missed the point: namely, that it is a collection of short stories.