{"id":"01KG6FVF985CTG1XZ9VKN0F8SM","cid":"bafkreidbrn3wizhnhlqncd3p7jybynpu3le2zwvqhi3a76mz2bour4xe5u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4771,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:41:20.747Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","start_line":4720,"text":"\"Here's what he said: 'The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly\nfor a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.'\"\nHe leaned over and handed it to me. I read it right when he gave it to me, and then\nI thanked him and all and put it in my pocket. It was nice of him to go to all that trouble.\nIt really was. The thing was, though, I didn't feel much like concentrating. Boy, I felt so\ndamn tired all of a sudden.\nYou could tell he wasn't tired at all, though. He was pretty oiled up, for one thing.\n\"I think that one of these days,\" he said, \"you're going to have to find out where you want\nto go. And then you've got to start going there. But immediately. You can't afford to lose\na minute. Not you.\"\nI nodded, because he was looking right at me and all, but I wasn't too sure what he\nwas talking about. I was pretty sure I knew, but I wasn't too positive at the time. I was too\ndamn tired.\n\n<!-- [Page 102](arke:01KG6FJ3CFKACN8FY1N6FC6NRX) -->\n\"And I hate to tell you,\" he said, \"but I think that once you have a fair idea where\nyou want to go, your first move will be to apply yourself in school. You'll have to. You're\na student--whether the idea appeals to you or not. You're in love with knowledge. And I\nthink you'll find, once you get past all the Mr. Vineses and their Oral Comp--\"\n\"Mr. Vinsons,\" I said. He meant all the Mr. Vinsons, not all the Mr. Vineses. I\nshouldn't have interrupted him, though.\n\"All right--the Mr. Vinsons. Once you get past all the Mr. Vinsons, you're going\nto start getting closer and closer--that is, if you want to, and if you look for it and wait for\nit--to the kind of information that will be very, very dear to your heart. Among other\nthings, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened\nand even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be\nexcited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and\nspiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles.\nYou'll learn from them--if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer,\nsomeone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it\nisn't education. It's history. It's poetry.\" He stopped and took a big drink out of his\nhighball. Then he started again. Boy, he was really hot. I was glad I didn't try to stop him\nor anything. \"I'm not trying to tell you,\" he said, \"that only educated and scholarly men\nare able to contribute something valuable to the world. It's not so. But I do say that\neducated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin with--which,\nunfortunately, is rarely the case--tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind\nthem than men do who are merely brilliant and creative. They tend to express themselves\nmore clearly, and they usually have a passion for following their thoughts through to the\nend. And--most important--nine times out of ten they have more humility than the\nunscholarly thinker. Do you follow me at all?\"\n\"Yes, sir.\"\nHe didn't say anything again for quite a while. I don't know if you've ever done it,\nbut it's sort of hard to sit around waiting for somebody to say something when they're\nthinking and all. It really is. I kept trying not to yawn. It wasn't that I was bored or\nanything--I wasn't--but I was so damn sleepy all of a sudden.\n\"Something else an academic education will do for you. If you go along with it\nany considerable distance, it'll begin to give you an idea what size mind you have. What\nit'll fit and, maybe, what it won't. After a while, you'll have an idea what kind of thoughts\nyour particular size mind should be wearing. For one thing, it may save you an\nextraordinary amount of time trying on ideas that don't suit you, aren't becoming to you.\nYou'll begin to know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly.\"\nThen, all of a sudden, I yawned. What a rude bastard, but I couldn't help it!","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6FV1MXNCHEX34S4KJ8SSPS","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KFF1K6A8V452X8SQKY55DD16","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6FVEM8V83PWWTSMDM95E0D","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6FVF94S1YNC4ST07JKVRDS","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:41:21.576Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:41:32.323Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}