Read online here and Gleanings, sec. 12, 110, and 112, 117 (see also ibid., sec. 122).
By verse[edit]
169: "Such academic pursuits as begin and end in words alone have never been and will never be of any worth"[edit]
Meaning of "Sciences that Begin and End in Words"[edit]
"What Bahá’u’lláh meant primarily with 'sciences that begin and end in words' are those theological treatises and commentaries that encumber the human mind rather than help it to attain the truth. The students would devote their life to their study but still attain nowhere.
"Bahá’u’lláh surely never meant to include story writing under such a category; and shorthand and typewriting are both most useful talents very necessary in our present social and economic life."
- (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, November 30, 1932, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1584)
