“The Authors who write near the beginnings of science, are, in general the most instructive: they take the reader more along with them, shew him the real difficulties, and, which is a main point, teach him the subject, the way by which they themselves learned it.”
A Treatise on Isoperimetrical Problems, and the Calculus of Variations (1810)
Context: The Authors who write near the beginnings of science, are, in general the most instructive: they take the reader more along with them, shew him the real difficulties, and, which is a main point, teach him the subject, the way by which they themselves learned it.<!--Preface p. v-iv
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Robert Woodhouse 7
English mathematician 1773–1827Related quotes

Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Introduction
Context: You must know that if a person, who has attained a certain degree of perfection, wishes to impart to others, either orally or in writing, any portion of the knowledge which he has acquired of these subjects, he is utterly unable to be as systematic and explicit as he could be in a science of which the method is well known. The same difficulties which he encountered when investigating the subject for himself will attend him when endeavouring to instruct others: viz., at one time the explanation will appear lucid, at another time, obscure: this property of the subject appears to remain the same both to the advanced scholar and to the beginner. For this reason, great theological scholars gave instruction in all such matters only by means of metaphors and allegories.

Truth of Intercourse.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 542.

Briefwechsel, ed. Arthur Henkel (1955-1975), vol. VI, p. 22.

“Learn knowledge and science from him who teaches it, even if he doesn't practice what he preaches.”
Ibn Shu’ba al-Harrani, Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p. 299

Sydpolen (The South Pole) (1912)

Conclusion : The Moral of this Examination
A Perplexed Philosopher (1892)

Source: On the Study and Difficulties of Mathematics (1831), Chapter I. Introductory Remarks on the Nature and Objects of Mathematics.