However much knowledge you read,
if there is no practice in you, you do not know.
علم چندان که بیشتر خوانی
چون عمل در تو نیست نادانیİlm çendân ki bîşter hânî
Çün amel der tû nîst nâdânî
Saadi, Gulistan, Chapter VIII, maxim 3 (1258).
Saadi tests knowledge in one place:
in your hands.
If what you know does not change what you do,
it has not settled in you.
It has passed over you.
On the same page there is an animal
carrying a few books on its back.
It does not know whether its load is firewood or ledgers.
When a person looks in the mirror
he sometimes sees that load.
How many of the things you have read
one day became work in your hands?