# Quote — Louis L’Amour, Education of a Wandering Man

> The idea of education has been so tied to schools, universities, and professors that many assume that there is no other way, but education is available to anyone within reach of a library, a post office, or even a newsstand.
>
> Today you can buy the Dialogues of Plato for less than you would spend on a fifth of whiskey, or Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for the price of a cheap shirt. You can buy a fair beginning of any education in any bookstore with a good stock of paperback books for less than you would spend on a week's supply of gasoline.
>
> Often I hear people say they do not have time to read. That's absolute nonsense. In the one year during which I kept that kind of record, I read twenty-five books while waiting for people. In offices, applying for jobs, waiting to see a dentist, waiting in a restaurant for friends, many such places. I read on buses, trains, and planes. If one really wants to learn, one has to decide what is important. Spending an evening on the town? Attending a ball game? Or learning something that can be with you your life long?

- Author: [Louis L’Amour](https://www.leafyquotes.com/louis-lamour.md)
- Book: [Education of a Wandering Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/louis-lamour/education-of-a-wandering-man.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_L'Amour#Education_of_a_Wandering_Man_(1989)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/louis-lamour/education-of-a-wandering-man/the-idea-of-education

## More from this book

> Only one who has learned much can fully appreciate his ignorance.
>
> He knows well the limits of his knowledge and how much is waiting to be learned.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/louis-lamour/education-of-a-wandering-man/only-one-who.md)

> My own education, which is the one I know most about, has been haphazard, a hit-and-miss affair that was and continues to be thoroughly delightful.
>
> I came into the world with two priceless advantages: good health and a love of learning. When I left school at the age of fifteen I was halfway through the tenth grade. I left for two reasons, economic necessity being the first of them. More important was that school was interfering with my education.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/louis-lamour/education-of-a-wandering-man/my-own-education.md)

> A mistake constantly made by those who should know better is to judge people of the past by our standards rather than their own. The only way men or women can be judged is against the canvas of their own time.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/louis-lamour/education-of-a-wandering-man/a-mistake-constantly.md)