
An Old Man's Thoughts on Many Things, Of Education I
Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy (2010)
Context: To transform oneself one must give, but to transform oneself one must also learn. One closes oneself off and does not admit love from another, the tenderness or the help of another. The real leap is learning to receive, which is as difficult as learning to give. And it is necessary to learn to ask for what one needs: justice is to give to oneself what one deserves. This is why the gospels say, "Knock and the door will be opened." If I ask for a long life, it is because I have the right to ask for it. If I ask that we will use an energy other than oil, it is because I have the right to ask for it. We have to learn to ask for what is just and to not ask for what it is not necessary to ask.
An Old Man's Thoughts on Many Things, Of Education I
The West Wing Script Book: Volume 1, Introduction.
Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
“Relearning and more difficult than learning.”
Réapprendre et plus difficile qu'apprendre.
[in Gracchus Babeuf avec les Egaux, Jean-Marc Shiappa, Les éditions ouvrières, 1991, 79, 27082 2892-7, ; Tribun du peuple, fructidor an II, 1794]
On Maximilien de Robespierre
Quoted by Jane Howard in The Power That Didn't Corrupt http://books.google.com/books?id=MNSxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Bromidic+though+it+may+sound+some+questions+don-t+have+answers+which+is+a+terribly+difficult+lesson+to+learn%22, Ms. magazine (October 1974)
“Ask and you shall receive" is the rule, but you must learn how to ask and how to receive”