Think on these things.

As part of our education , I have always been someone who wanted to 'achieve something' or 'be better'  or 'become something' . I think its not a unique experience. Many of us have been told by parents, school and our family and neighbors to 'have an ambition' . "What do you want to become when you grow up ?"  is a frequent question .. JK tries to explore these dilemmas and questions , to expose what he thinks is more(most) important.

A wonderful book and I highly recommend this for a parent or a student to get some clarity on the important things in our life. 

Quotes/passages that I liked: 

"To inquire into deeper things of life, the mind must be free , but the moment you learn and make that learning the basis of further inquiry , your mind is not free "

"there may be the state of learning , when you do the thing for the love of itself." 

The understanding of what you actually are is far more important that then pursuit of what you should be- pg 197. 

Beliefs are a curse, they divide people and create antagonism.

To be free of sorrow, one must be free of the desire to do hard- and also of the desire to do goo.. The so called good that is equally the result of our conditioning. 

once I begin to understand what I am , then I shall never compare with another person - pg 124.

Our present education system is rotten because it teaches us to love success and not what we are doing. The result has become more important than the action - pg 126.

It is good to hide your brilliance under a bushel , to be anonymous, to love what you are doing ant not show off . You are jut a creative human being living anonymously and in that there is richness and great beauty  - pg 126. 

Relationship is a mirror in which you can see yourself , not as you would wish to be , but as you are .- pg 133

To see the fact without trying to alter it , just to see exactly what you are is an astonishing revelation - pg 134.

you are afraid of what you are ,which means, you have no confidence in yourself. That is why you try to be what society , what your parents and your religion tells you to be - pg 170

The function of education is to give the student abundant knowledge in the various fields of human endeavors and at the same time, free his mind of all traditions. 

what is needed is not philosophy or belief but for the mind to be free to investigate , to discren , and to be creative - pg 175.

you see, your education does not tell you how to think; it tells you what to think - pg 179.