Every Man His Own University (Updated Translation)

Book Summary

Russel H. Conwell's "Every Man His Own University" (1917) presents a compelling philosophy of self-education and personal development, arguing that the greatest opportunities for learning and success lie in one's immediate environment. Drawing from his famous "Acres of Diamonds" lectures, Conwell emphasizes that education comes not primarily from formal schooling but from careful observation and practical experience in daily life.

The work begins by challenging conventional notions of education, arguing that true learning happens through keen observation of one's surroundings rather than solely through books or lectures. Conwell uses numerous examples of successful individuals who educated themselves through careful study of their immediate circumstances and everyday experiences.

Throughout the text, Conwell emphasizes the importance of developing what he calls the "trained eye" - the ability to see opportunities and lessons in common experiences that others overlook. He argues that every profession, trade, and human interaction contains valuable lessons for those who learn to observe carefully.

The book provides practical methods for self-education, including techniques for systematic observation, learning from everyday conversations, and turning daily experiences into educational opportunities. Conwell particularly emphasizes the importance of learning from successful people in one's community and studying the practical aspects of one's chosen field.

A significant portion of the work focuses on the role of character development in self-education. Conwell argues that true education must develop not just knowledge but also moral character, work ethic, and practical wisdom. He emphasizes that success comes from applying what one learns to benefit others, not just oneself.

The text is filled with inspirational stories of individuals who achieved success through self-directed learning and careful observation of their environment. Conwell uses these examples to demonstrate that formal education, while valuable, is not a prerequisite for success and that the best university is often one's own experience carefully studied.

Every Man his Own University (Modern, Updated Translation)

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Each person carries their own unique university in their mind. The only person who truly succeeds in the universities of the world, and in the larger university of life, is the one who has first completed their graduate and post-graduate studies in the university within their own mind. There, observation offers a daily change in the curriculum. Books are not the original sources of power; instead, observation, which can provide us with broad experience, deep thinking, strong emotions, and the ability to act independently, is the true source of power.

Without observation, literature and meditation are like rain and sunshine on untouched soil. The only true schools and colleges are those that focus on teaching students to see more clearly what they are looking at, helping them notice things they wouldn't have observed without their education. You can't make a good arrow from a pig's tail, and it's rare to find someone worthwhile who hasn't learned to be alert to what can be seen or heard early in life. John Stuart Blackie points out that it's surprising how often we walk around with our eyes wide open but see nothing, and Doctor Johnson notes that some people will see more while riding ten miles on the top of a bus than others will see while traveling across a continent.

"How to observe" should be our motto, not just at the start of our lives, but throughout our entire journey. With the same intellectual abilities and interests, two people can walk side by side through the same landscape and encounter the same individuals. One person finds great inspiration from the surroundings and is deeply engaged with everything they see and hear among the people. The other person, however, finds no inspiration from the beauty, birds, or flowers, and is only entertained by the trivial aspects of the people.

A traveler in Athens or Rome, Paris or London, might be shown around these cities by a professional guide, yet only gain a little understanding of what these cities have to offer and remember only a small part of what they've seen. Another traveler, without a guide but paying attention to everything they see and hear, will leave with experiences from their visit that will be interesting for a lifetime and useful to anyone who follows in their footsteps. The solo but observant traveler in a new country almost always benefits the most from their travels. They are forced to notice streets and buildings, parks and people; every day of their journey becomes a lesson in observation that helps them remember everything they've seen. Newspaper correspondents from the past didn't have guidebooks or guides, and they were complete strangers in the places they visited. They relied entirely on themselves to find their way and discover everything valuable and interesting. They found much that modern guides either overlook or ignore, and wrote for their readers back home about what would be most interesting and informative.

When Henry M. Stanley first visited Jerusalem, he insisted that the guide in charge of his group keep all guides and guidebooks out of his sight. In just two days, Stanley knew the streets, the location of the Temple, the Holy Sepulcher, and all the notable places in that ancient city. If Stanley is known today as one of the most intelligent travelers, it's mainly because he excelled in daily observation, which everyone who thinks for themselves recognizes as the most important skill of a good education. He often said that he knew Rome, Naples, and Vienna far better than he knew New York, where he had lived for many years. In that way, he was like most people, who generally know less about what's notable in their hometowns than observant visitors who stay there only briefly during their travels. What we invest time and effort in seems more valuable—no effort, no value.

A renowned foreign correspondent of his time, Henry W. Chambers, spent only six hours at Baalbek, near Damascus. Yet, he wrote what is likely the clearest description ever of the magnificent temples at Baalbek—and he did this from Hong Kong, after having many varied experiences visiting other, more significant places. Many archaeologists and literary figures before him had visited the moat of the great fortress at Baalbek. However, they never observed as Chambers did, and so they missed seeing the arrowheads and all the other warlike instruments used in those ancient days, which had gone unnoticed among those huge pillars and great foundation stones.

Although General Lew Wallace spent a long time in Jerusalem, he only imagined that there might have been an inner dungeon beneath the great prison. So, when he wrote Ben Hur, he placed his leprous heroine into this imaginary prison. Later, a schoolteacher from northern England, with her tourist lantern, discovered the doorway to this prison that Wallace had only imagined. For centuries, travelers journeying from Egypt and Palestine to the Euphrates had taken the same path through the desert. However, it was a marble inscription cutter who, after all these centuries, noticed the Rosetta Stone. Thanks to this discovery, archaeologists can now read the inscriptions on the tablets in the ancient palaces of Babylon and Nineveh.

Millions of people had seen the lid of a teakettle moving up and down over boiling water before the Scotsman, Watt, noticed it while making watches. But he was the first among all those millions whose careful observation led him to explore the power of boiling water in the teakettle. He then applied this power to the steam engine, which remains a major driving force in the world. Since the time of the Garden of Eden, apples had been falling in orchards around the world during harvest. Out of all the billions who had seen apples fall, only Sir Isaac Newton recognized the law of gravity involved in their falling.

All the great discoverers started with almost the same basic ability to observe as everyone else, but early in life, they learned to value this incredible power to pay close attention above all other mental abilities. Each of them enriched their field of observation with their discoveries.

Why do most of us go through life without noticing the millions of amazing truths and facts, while only a few keep their eyes and ears wide open, busy every day collecting what they observe? It seems like losing our instincts is the price we pay today for the few minor things we learn from school and college; we push aside our natural thinking to make room for our education. The person who diligently develops their observation skills and gains daily insights from their experiences, allowing them to see everything in life more clearly and deeply, has given themselves a discipline far more important than what schools and colleges can offer without it. The greatest textbooks from the top universities are just records of the observations made by keen observers who developed their ability to see things better, mostly while they were learning on their own.

The intellect acts like both a telescope and a microscope; when used correctly, it can notice countless things that are too small or too far away for those who don't truly see or hear. The intellect can be trained to look far beyond what people usually notice; however, no college in the world can grant this ability on its own—this is the reward of self-culture; each person must develop it for themselves. Perhaps this is why the ability to observe deeply and broadly is often found in those who have never attended any college but have learned from the School of Hard Knocks.

Only the person from whose own soul it flows freely can truly understand the energizing power of science.

When we look back on our lives and think about how many things we could have seen and heard if we had trained our observation skills, it feels like we've made little progress and spent most of our time on flat ground, while our accomplishments seem like mere scratches on black marble. People hold a higher regard for the degrees given by the University of Observation and Experience than for all the other degrees from all other universities in the world. The main reason real men and women respect the degrees awarded by colleges is that the graduates have first gained everything that close observation and wide experience can offer.

The lives of men and women who have truly made a difference keep reminding us how much more important learning from constant observation is compared to just learning from school courses. It takes ten times the knowledge gained from observation and experience to wisely use one part of school learning. A thoughtful person will never ask which college you attended, but rather how much the college has influenced you; and the ability and habit of observing deeply and broadly is the preparation we all need for the college to truly impact us. Confucius from China, Kito from Japan, Goethe from Germany, Arnold from England, and Lincoln and Edison from America are remembered today for their thoughts and actions because they had masterfully developed their power of detailed attention. In building a huge business or amassing great wealth, people like Rothschild, Rockefeller, and Carnegie show us how crucial it is for material success to consistently attend the school of attention.

The colleges that are gaining the most respect today are those increasingly recognizing the importance of observation. They require their students to spend some of their college time gaining experience in their fields by observing the practical aspects of their careers. Medical students are in hospitals, law students attend court sessions, theology students participate in mission work, and engineering students work in workshops. Neither lectures nor theories can replace these experiences; each complements the other. If only one can be chosen, the experience from observing actual work is far more important. Opportunities to observe practical matters, alongside theory, represent the modern approach that all the best institutions are adopting to prepare students for the real-world business of life.

Greatness from careful observation and extensive experience hasn't just been a trait of men of action. Shakespeare, Goethe, Bunyan, Burns, Whittier, Longfellow, James Whitcomb Riley, and many other great figures in philosophy, science, and literature are highly regarded today and have served humanity well because they were exceptionally sharp observers.

A good newspaper reporter is a trained observer who describes exactly what they see. However, the way even trained observers sometimes fail to observe accurately is clearly shown by the very different accounts of the same event reported in various newspapers within a community.

One of the best ways to learn how to observe accurately and in detail is to take a quick look at a store window display, walk away, and then try to remember what you saw, including the number of items and what they were. Afterward, go back to the window and check your memory by listing its contents. Practicing this regularly will greatly improve your observation skills. Perhaps the most famous person known for using this method to train observation skills was Houdini, the famous magician, who explains the method in detail and shares his experiences with it in his memoirs.

Animals and "The Little Things"

The benefits that humanity has gained from studying lower animal life are immense and can't be fully captured in just one book. Thanks to vivisection and post-mortem dissection, scientists have nearly eliminated contagious and infectious diseases from affecting humans. We've learned to live better by observing animal habits—how they search for food, build their homes, live their lives, fear humans, and maintain their health. All this knowledge has been gathered for our benefit and the advancement of humanity through the efforts of dedicated observers. They have studied the cat by the fireplace, the dog by the door, the horses in the pasture and stable, the pigs in their pens, and the sheep in their enclosures. Closely connected to these animal life researchers are those who have studied the origins, habits, and impacts of birds, insects, and other small creatures.

What we've learned from animals in the past seems like just a small amount compared to what they will teach us when we approach them with a more serious purpose and observe them more carefully. The leaders in these studies of animal life have all been known for their ability to discover things in animals that others have missed.

Professor Darwin's careful observation of the doves he fed at his doorstep gave him important insights and laid the groundwork for his famous book, "The Origin of Species." When Professor Niles from the Boston School of Technology was a young boy, he caught a minnow on his way home from school. Following his father's advice, he placed the fish in a basic aquarium and studied its movements. When the fish died, he examined its parts under a microscope, and this experience marked the start of his extensive understanding of the animal kingdom.

While a Philadelphia clergyman was visiting a farmer in northern New Jersey, the family became worried because their dog had "gone mad." They locked it in the kitchen and tried to find someone to shoot it through the window. A neighbor watched the dog closely and told them it was poisoned. He suggested they let the dog go so it could find an antidote in the field or forest. He explained that cats, cattle, and horses often have to find an antidote for some poisonous plant they have eaten, and that animals know more about these things than any medical school teacher. As soon as the dog was released, it quickly ran across the field to a brook and ate a weed growing by the water. The dog soon returned to the house and ate heartily after a two-week fast.

The clergyman had followed the dog and noticed the plant it had eaten. After the dog returned to the house, he uprooted the plant and took some of its leaves to a Philadelphia firm of chemists. Following the firm's advice, he sent the leaves to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, where they were found to be a valuable antidote for poison. Not only did this discovery provide humanity with a better medicine, but the clergyman also gained a decent income from it. This remedy for poisoning is often used in prescriptions, so even doctors sometimes "go to the dogs" for guidance.

Like Professor Agassiz and Sir Oliver Lodge, many people find their best teachers in household animals. The chickens around the house and barn can be like entire universities for learning about the sciences. Because of her connection to nature, the hen is often a more effective teacher than most college professors. She instinctively knows so much about the laws of nature that wise people can learn from her. She might seem a bit silly when she announces her egg-laying achievements with a cackle, but her understanding of life's necessities, her careful watch over her chicks, the way she uses her feet and wings, her ability to sense approaching storms, her methods of defending herself from hawks, her knowledge of how an egg forms, and the right time to break the shell to release her chick—all these are worthy of the attention of even the greatest scientists.

But what we have learned from animals in the past seems only a trifle in comparison with what they will teach when we go to them with more serious purpose and more carefully observe them. The leaders in all these investigations of animal life have all been distinguished for their power to discover in animals what has escaped other people.

Professor Darwin's close observation of the doves he fed at his door opened up to him important suggestions and laid the foundation for his great treatise, "The Origin of Species." When Professor Niles of the Boston School of Technology was a boy he caught a minnow while returning from school. At his father's suggestion he put the fish into a simple aquarium and studied its movements. When it died he carefully examined its parts under a microscope--and this experience was the beginning of his vast knowledge of the animal realm.

While a Philadelphia clergyman was visiting a farmer in northern New Jersey, the family became perturbed because their dog had "gone mad." They fastened it in the kitchen and sought somebody to kill it by shooting at it through the window. A neighbor observed the dog carefully and told them it was poisoned. He advised the family to loose it in order that it might get some antidote for itself in field or forest. He told them that cats, cattle, and horses are often compelled to find an antidote for some poisonous herb they have eaten, and that the animals know more about such things than any teacher in the medical schools. As soon as the dog was unfastened he hastened across the field to a brook, and ate a weed that was growing beside the water. The dog soon returned to the house, and ate heartily after a two weeks' fast.

The clergyman had followed the dog and observed the plant which it had eaten. After the dog had returned to the house he uprooted the plant and took some of its leaves to a Philadelphia firm of chemists. Acting upon the firm's advice, he sent the leaves to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, and they were found to be a valuable antidote for poison. Not only was humanity given a better medicine from this discovery, but the clergyman also derived a competency from it. This remedy for poisoning is often used in prescriptions; so even doctors sometimes "go to the dogs" for instructions.

Like Professor Agassiz and Sir Oliver Lodge, many find their best instructors in domestic animals. The fowls around the house and the barn may be whole universities for developing the sciences. Through her dependence on nature the hen is a more efficient instructor than the majority of college professors. She knows by instinct so much of the laws of nature that wise men may sit at her feet or her bill and learn. Perhaps she may seem a little foolish in proclaiming her achievements in egg-laying by a cackle, but her knowledge of the necessities of life, her careful oversight of her brood, the way she uses her feet and her wings, her foreknowledge of approaching storms, her means of defending herself when attacked by hawks, her knowledge of the formation of the egg and of the proper time to break the shell for the release of her chick--all these are worthy of the attention of even the greatest scientists.

In a speech at a poultry convention, Oliver Wendell Holmes mentioned that chickens seem to offer much more to study than Darwin's doves. While spending a summer in Kennebunkport, Maine, Holmes trained five chickens to come when he called, to perch on his head, and to jump with open beaks to catch a kernel of corn. By the end of the season, the chickens would even come to his bedroom after he had gone to bed—making it necessary, as Doctor Holmes joked, for the landlord to serve them for dinner. Doctor Holmes's parody of Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life" demonstrates what a keen observer he was. While some of Longfellow's fans were offended by the parody, seeing it as disrespectful, Longfellow himself always considered it a compliment. He once told James T. Fields that, in one couplet of the parody, Holmes had surpassed the entire original poem:

Not like muffled drums be beating

On the inside of the shell.

Longfellow told Fields that there are always millions of people who are like chicks still in their shells, with wings they don't know how to use. They feel a pull towards a bigger life outside, but they can't see anything beyond their current situation. Some keep trying until they die inside their shell, while others, with help from a friend on the outside, break free and step into a beautiful and fulfilling life.

In the egg or molecule, we get closer to understanding God than we do through a telescope or by traveling around the world. Those who live closest to the source of everything find the best inspiration for visions of greater sights or events. Therefore, a simple home is a happier place than a palace for someone who wants to develop deeper thoughts and feelings. The simple home is the best preparation for living in a mansion, as long as the experience in the simple home has been meaningful. Someone who has lived their life in a simple home with dignity will be the person who can live in a mansion with ease. Emerson said, "The entire system of things is represented in every particle."

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and unlucky is the person who knows a little about many things but doesn't know even one small thing completely. The ability of small things to teach and bring happiness should be the first lesson in life, and it should be deeply instilled. The main need of this dissatisfied and sinful world is to understand that in one blade of grass or the color of an evening cloud, there is enough wonder to fill the largest heart and enough science to engage the greatest passion.

This morning, we saw a delicate blue flower in the grass that I had never noticed before. It looked like a different flower from each angle, and when viewed through a magnifying glass, it had colors I had never seen before in any flower or artwork. The field where it was growing has been familiar to me for seventy years, yet the flower was completely new to me. It was so delicate, attractive, and inspiring that I felt like I had missed something important for my spiritual growth all these years—something like the experiences of Virgil, Guizot, Carlyle, Grotius, or like Tennyson in the "Holy Grail," who says he left a real and wonderful life behind to pursue the unknown. This little flower in the morning sunlight brings back thoughts of years long past—of the faces of assembled armies in battle, of eyes deep and calm with the smile of a loving mother's welcome, and of the great forgiveness in a father's affection.

If I had discovered that flower seventy years earlier, I think my appreciation for the Divine Power would have been greater, my heart more content, and my soul filled with a deeper, holier peace. We get lost trying to understand the cause behind this small flower. It's impossible to find words to describe the strange emotions this newly found flower stirred in me, or to explain the distant places my imagination traveled to while I pondered it. If we could free ourselves from the confusing cares of our daily responsibilities; if we could forget the worries of each day; if the losses, disappointments, and wrongs of many years didn't weigh on us; if the demands of many duties, the need for our attention, and the calls of friends didn't interrupt us—we could find in contemplating this tiny flower of the field a source of happiness that years of sorrow and misfortune couldn't destroy.

Bacon, Burke, and Niebuhr realized how much greatness can come into our lives from the small things around us, but they all realized it too late to go back and live the ideal life of simplicity and individuality that was suggested to them by a drop of water and a hummingbird. The smallest things are the most important if they bring into our lives the biggest thoughts and feelings and motivate us to take the greatest actions for ourselves and humanity. Why do we always look to the horizon for what we can find right at our feet? These little beauties of the field remind both the wanderer and the distinguished person that, with a sweet smile and a gentle pout, "You could have found more in my life than has ever been learned from the wise ones."

While Zinzendorf was stuck on a small island for almost a year, his active mind had to focus on observing things along the shore. His study of the colors in clam shells led him to say later in life, at a meeting of philosophers, that spending a lifetime studying these colors could reveal more beauty than all the man-made color combinations known at that time.

Art hasn't yet managed to capture the colors found in an oyster shell, and the wings of a June bug have been enlarged and replicated through color photography, which will significantly impact all future art. To best meet human needs, we should start at the source and follow the Creator's example in turning them into things of beauty and usefulness.

Even though the Agricultural Department in Washington spent eight million dollars studying seeds and their growth by sending experts around the world for research, the findings of Luther Burbank and many similar researchers in agricultural colleges across the country have led to even more significant discoveries. Their research has resulted in a greater increase in production per acre than all the findings from those who traveled the world for the government. No one would argue that their work wasn't a worthwhile investment for the nation.

Observation shows us that the sooner we embrace the simple things in life, the longer, healthier, and more meaningful our lives will be. The healthiest people are those who have just enough to eat and a natural appetite to go with it. The most admirable lives are those who strive to be as virtuous as possible and are always ready to perform small acts of kindness. Consider how much richer a life a poet leads when they can empathize with a field mouse, like Burns! Or when they are inspired by a fringed gentian, like Bryant! Or when they find peace in a frosted pumpkin, like Riley! Like Shakespeare, we too can "find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything," if we just use our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our minds to understand, and our hearts to feel. The Poor Man's University offers its courses everywhere, and the only requirement to enroll is a mind willing to focus on the magnificent things that are all around us.

The Lowest Level

Almost every day, Americans are reminded that "necessity is the mother of invention." With just a bit of thought and observation, it's clear how fortunate American youth are to have examples of fellow citizens who have started from the most modest backgrounds and have risen through determination and perseverance to achieve honor and make a positive impact.

We owe much of our comfort, convenience, happiness, and power in life to the creativity and observations of people who were not wealthy. They have given us steam power, the locomotive, the telegraph, the typewriter, the telephone, the car, the record player, and the airplane. The significant progress in agriculture, thanks to mowers, reapers, planters, and specialized seeds and fruits, is entirely due to their persistent efforts. People only truly strive for something when they feel they need it, which is why the sons and daughters of the wealthy are rarely the ones who contribute to humanity in the same way that many less fortunate individuals have, through inventions that have eased the burdens of countless homes and greatly increased the productivity of farms and factories. If the wealthy had been driven by hunger, cold, or other strong motivations that push the less fortunate to think and act vigorously, they might also have many inventions to their name. The desires of a normal soul are the foundation for all meaningful activities in life.

The biggest disadvantage for the sons and daughters of wealthy parents is having all their needs met by their indulgent parents' bank accounts. They are not taught hard work, saving money, or self-control, which often makes them a problem in society. They don't appreciate many things in life that bring joy to the poor, simply because they have never needed them. A hungry boy who has stood outside a bakery, holding onto a nickel and struggling with himself about whether to spend it on a piece of bread or take it home to his mother, who hasn't had breakfast or lunch, truly understands the value of a dollar.

The head of the Patent Office in Washington has confirmed the official report from the French Patent Office, stating that there hasn't been any invention of significant value that wasn't either discovered or improved upon by someone with limited means. The best life-preserver was invented by a sailor who had fallen overboard and nearly drowned. An unknown person from a small region surrounded by powerful nations invented the quick-firing gun, capable of shooting six hundred times while a regular gun is still being loaded. It was a poor machinist from Cambridge, whose family often struggled with hunger, who invented the sewing machine. This invention has transformed home life worldwide and relieved women of a major household chore. The ship's chronometer, essential for navigation, was made practical by a man who had been lost at sea and feared he would never reach land again. The locomotive, which has greatly contributed to the expansion of our population across our vast country, was introduced to the world by an Englishman, Stephenson, who was so poor in his early life that he received little education.