“This is the knowledge I was able to acquire and learn without any elementary schooling”

—  Girolamo Cardano

The Book of My Life (1930)
Context: My father, in my earliest childhood, taught me the rudiments of arithmetic, and about that time made me acquainted with the arcana; whence he had come by this learning I know not. This was about my ninth year. Shortly after, he instructed me in the elements of the astronomy of Arabia, meanwhile trying to instill in me some system of theory for memorizing, for I had been poorly endowed with the ability to remember. After I was twelve years old he taught me the first six books of Euclid, but in such a manner that he expended no effort on such parts as I was able to understand by myself.
This is the knowledge I was able to acquire and learn without any elementary schooling...<!--Ch. 34

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 22, 2020. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "This is the knowledge I was able to acquire and learn without any elementary schooling" by Girolamo Cardano?
Girolamo Cardano photo
Girolamo Cardano 17
Italian Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer 1501–1576

Related quotes

Desiderius Erasmus photo

“You must acquire the best knowledge first, and without delay; it is the height of madness to learn what you will later have to unlearn.”

Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian

Letter to Christian Northoff (1497), as translated in Collected Works of Erasmus (1974), p. 114

Anthony Trollope photo

“There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.”

Anthony Trollope book Barchester Towers

Source: Barchester Towers (1857), Ch. 20; this derives from an expression attributed to Euclid.

Neal Stephenson photo

“Any event largely organized by elementary school teachers was likely to come off extremely well from a logistical and crowd-control standpoint.”

Neal Stephenson book Seveneves

"The Seven Sisters"
Seveneves (2015), Part One

“It is also worth noting that it is extremely difficult to be a great buyer of complementary competencies if you do not have any knowledge about the stuff you are acquiring. Friedrich Nietzsche pointed out that a man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access. We need knowledge to be able to outsource knowledge.”

Jonas Ridderstråle (1966) Swedish business theorist

Source: Karaoke Capitalism, 2005, p. 233

Confucius photo

“Leaving virtue without proper cultivation; not thoroughly discussing what is learned; not being able to move towards righteousness of which a knowledge is gained; and not being able to change what is not good: — these are the things which occasion me solicitude.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Source: The Analects, Other chapters

John Rogers Searle photo

“Just acquiring this amount of "education" will not, by itself, make you an educated person, even less will it give you what Oakeshott calls "judgment." But if the manner of instruction is adequate, the student should be able to acquire this much knowledge in a way that combines intellectual openness, critical scrutiny, and logical clarity. If so, learning will not stop when the student leaves the university.”

John Rogers Searle (1932) American philosopher

The Storm Over the University (December 6, 1990)

“The most important thing any teacher has to learn, not to be learned in any school of education I ever heard of, can be expressed in seven words: Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.”

John Holt (1923–1985) educator

Growing Without Schooling magazine, no. 40 (1984).

“Without universities independent of government control, the natural process of acquiring knowledge and developing thought will be thwarted, if not rendered impossible.”

Narges Mohammadi (1972) Iranian human rights activist

Letter Accepting 2018 Andrei Sakharov Prizefrom (2018)

Bessie Love photo

“I had a rudimentary knowledge of dancing and had learned a bit of tap at dancing school, but it was mostly a case of picking it up as one went along.”

Bessie Love (1898–1986) American actress (1898–1986)

On dancing in film, from [Leslie, Wilkinson, What Are They Doing Now? Part 14, Photoplay Film Monthly]

Nagarjuna photo

“If you desire ease, forsake learning.
If you desire learning, forsake ease.
How can the man at his ease acquire knowledge,
And how can the earnest student enjoy ease?”

Nagarjuna (150–250) Indian philosopher

The Tree of Wisdom http://books.google.com/books?id=d3TX5peeoSsC&pg=PP17&dq=%22If+you+desire+ease+forsake+learning+If+you+desire+learning+forsake+ease+How+can+the+man+at+his+ease+acquire+knowledge+And+how+can+the+earnest+student+enjoy+ease%22

Related topics