Thus it follows that books alone are but a trifle in this matter; it is necessary to be able to take advantage of them.

And it is this ability that is more cunning than any books, and yet nothing about it is written in the books.

This, Foma, you must learn from Life itself.
A book is a dead thing, you may take it as you please, you may tear it, break it--it will not cry out.

While should you but make a single wrong step in life, or wrongly occupy a place in it, Life will start to bawl at you in a thousand voices; it will deal you a blow, felling you to the ground." Foma, his elbows leaning on the table, attentively listened to his father, and under the sound of his powerful voice he pictured to himself now the carpenter squaring a beam, now himself, his hands outstretched, carefully and stealthily approaching some colossal and living thing, and desiring to grasp that terrible something.
"A man must preserve himself for his work and must be thoroughly acquainted with the road to it.

A man, dear, is like the pilot on a ship.