"Most often attention is confused with a kind of muscular
effort.
"If one says to one's pupils: 'Now you must pay attention,' one sees
them contracting their brows, holding their breath, stiffening their muscles.
"If after two minutes they are asked what they have been paying attention to,
they cannot reply. They have been concentrating on nothing.
"They have not been
paying attention. They have been contracting their muscles.
"We often expend this kind of muscular effort on our
studies.
"As it ends by making us tired, we have the impression that we have
been working. That it an illusion....
"The intelligence can only be led by desire.
"For there to be
desire, there must be pleasure and joy in the work.
"The intelligence only grows
and bears fruit in joy.
"The joy of learning is as indispensible in study as
breathing is in running."
