Quotes about learning
page 11

“A single day among the learned lasts longer than the longest life of the ignorant.”

Posidonius (-135–-51 BC) ancient greek philosopher

As quoted in Epistulae morales ad Lucilium by Seneca, Epistle LXXVIII (trans. R. M. Gummere)

“When I look around, I always learn something: to be always yourself, and to express yourself, to have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Radio interview with Ted Thomas (1972) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la_D3oF5H_A

Faith, Success, Personality

“If, by the virtue of charity or the circumstance of desperation, you ever chance to spend a little time around a Substance-recovery halfway facility like Enfield MA’s state-funded Ennet House, you will acquire many exotic new facts…That certain persons simply will not like you no matter what you do. That sleeping can be a form of emotional escape and can with sustained effort be abused. That purposeful sleep-deprivation can also be an abusable escape. That you do not have to like a person in order to learn from him/her/it. That loneliness is not a function of solitude. That logical validity is not a guarantee of truth. That it takes effort to pay attention to any one stimulus for more than a few seconds. That boring activities become, perversely, much less boring if you concentrate intently on them. That if enough people in a silent room are drinking coffee it is possible to make out the sound of steam coming off the coffee. That sometimes human beings have to just sit in one place and, like, hurt. That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. That there is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness. That it is possible to fall asleep during an anxiety attack. That concentrating intently on anything is very hard work. That 99% of compulsive thinkers’ thinking is about themselves; that 99% of this self-directed thinking consists of imagining and then getting ready for things that are going to happen to them; and then, weirdly, that if they stop to think about it, that 100% of the things they spend 99% of their time and energy imagining and trying to prepare for all the contingencies and consequences of are never good. In short that 99% of the head’s thinking activity consists of trying to scare the everliving shit out of itself. That it is possible to make rather tasty poached eggs in a microwave oven. That some people’s moms never taught them to cover up or turn away when they sneeze. That the people to be the most frightened of are the people who are the most frightened. That it takes great personal courage to let yourself appear weak. That no single, individual moment is in and of itself unendurable. That other people can often see things about you that you yourself cannot see, even if those people are stupid. That having a lot of money does not immunize people from suffering or fear. That trying to dance sober is a whole different kettle of fish. That different people have radically different ideas of basic personal hygiene. That, perversely, it is often more fun to want something than to have it. That if you do something nice for somebody in secret, anonymously, without letting the person you did it for know it was you or anybody else know what it was you did or in any way or form trying to get credit for it, it’s almost its own form of intoxicating buzz. That anonymous generosity, too, can be abused. That it is permissible to want. That everybody is identical in their unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else. That this isn’t necessarily perverse. That there might not be angels, but there are people who might as well be angels.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest (1996)

Money, People, Truth, Secret

“The cool-person syndrome is peculiarly American. Part of that has to do with the way the educational business is run in the U. S. It’s not based on how much you can teach your child: it’s based on how much money the suppliers of basic materials can make off your child. Somewhere along the line most people pick up the desire to be a cool person, which is just another way to make them buy things. Once you’ve decided that you need to be a cool person, it makes you a possible victim of anyone whose products are the equivalent of bottled smoke. Somebody tells you to buy this particularly useless item and you’ll be a cool person. No matter how stupid it seems, you have to buy it. Pet Rocks. Pringle’s potato chips. whatever it is — the newest, the latest. Since the cool-person thing is something you learn in school, and since the school business is pretty suspicious and definitely tied up with the government, it makes you wonder whether or not the desire to be cool is part of a government plot to make you buy stupid things.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Oui interview (1979)

Money, People, Stupidity, Education

“No one yet has learned to drive a locomotive sitting in his study.”

Leon Trotsky book Terrorism and Communism

Source: Terrorism and Communism (1920), Ch. 7, p. 101

Study

“But how can we in good conscience justify war before we’ve tested a diplomatic agreement that achieves our objectives; that has been agreed to by Iran; that is supported by the rest of the world; and that preserves our options if the deal falls short? How could we justify that to our troops? How could we justify that to the world or to future generations? In the end, that should be a lesson that we’ve learned from over a decade of war. On the front end, ask tough questions. Subject our own assumptions to evidence and analysis. Resist the conventional wisdom and the drumbeat of war. Worry less about being labeled weak; worry more about getting it right.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Remarks by the President on the Iran Nuclear Deal at American University in Washington, D.C. (August 05, 2015) https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/08/05/remarks-president-iran-nuclear-deal <br class="br">2015

Wisdom, War, World, Question

“For nearly five hundred years, these rules and theories of an Arab Shaikh and the interpretations of generations of lazy and good-for-nothing priests have decided the civil and criminal law of Turkey. They have decided the form of the Constitution, the details of the lives of each Turk, his food, his hours of rising and sleeping the shape of his clothes, the routine of the midwife who produced his children, what he learned in his schools, his customs, his thoughts-even his most intimate habits. Islam – this theology of an immoral Arab – is a dead thing. Possibly it might have suited tribes in the desert. It is no good for modern, progressive state. God’s revelation! There is no God! These are only the chains by which the priests and bad rulers bound the people down. A ruler who needs religion is a weakling. No weaklings should rule.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and the first President of Turkey

As quoted in Grey Wolf: Mustafa Kemal – An intimate study of a dictator (1932) by Harold Courtenay Armstrong, pp. 199-200
Disputed

God, Bad luck, Children, People

“I’ve learned so many things since then. I’ve changed in a way that involves elimination for the sake of evolution. There’s less emphasis on trying to figure things out. It’s about letting things be. I’m focusing on listening to the silence underneath everything. That’s what I try to connect with. I can listen to the silence right here, right now while we’re talking, and it feels so good. I’m in love with the silence.”

Erykah Badu (1971) American neo-soul singer

On how her viewpoint has changed since releasing the album Baduizm in “In Conversation: Erykah Badu” https://www.vulture.com/2018/01/erykah-badu-in-conversation.html in New York Magazine (Jan 2018)

Love, Making love, Way, Feeling

“When Adam ate the apple in the Garden and learned how to multiply and replenish, the other animals learned the Art, too, by watching Adam. It was cunning of them, it was neat; for they got all that was worth having out of the apple without tasting it and afflicting themselves with the disastrous Moral Sense, the parent of all the immoralities.”

Mark Twain book Letters from the Earth

Letters from the Earth (1909)

Art, Parent, Sense, Affliction

“He has made contributions to many areas of science; among them are agronomy, anthropology, astronomy, bacteriology, botany, economics, forestry, meteorology, psychology, public health, and-above all-genetics, in which he is recognized as one of the leaders. Out of this varied scientific research and his skill in mathematics, he has evolved systematic principles for the interpretation of empirical data; and he has founded a science of experimental design. On the foundations he has laid down, there has been erected a structure of statistical techniques that are used whenever people attempt to learn about nature from experiment and observation.”

Ronald Fisher (1890–1962) English statistician, evolutionary biologist, geneticist, and eugenicist

W. Allen Wallis (1952) at the University of Chicago while honoring Fisher with the Honorary degree of Doctor of Science; cited in: George E. P. Box (1976) " Science and Statistics http://www-sop.inria.fr/members/Ian.Jermyn/philosophy/writings/Boxonmaths.pdf" Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 71, No. 356. (Dec., 1976), pp. 791-799.

People, Health, Mathematics, Nature

“His humble origins as well his family’s background of being artisans of previous generations meant that he grew up with a healthy respect for work done with one’s hands. He learned to stitch clothes, crush stones, plough fields, lay roads and dig wells, understanding the needs and aspirations of the common man like few others have done in childhood.”

Zail Singh (1916–1994) Indian politician and former President of India

Source: First among equals President of India, p. 69.

Family, Understanding, Childhood, Clothes

“When I look around I always learn something, and that is to be yourself always, express yourself, and have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him. Now that seems to be the prevalent thing happening in Hong Kong, like they always copy mannerism, but they never start from the root of his being and that is, how can I be me?”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Bruce Lee

Faith, Success, Personality

“Naturally, every age thinks that all ages before it were prejudiced, and today we think this more than ever and are just as wrong as all previous ages that thought so. How often have we not seen the truth condemned! It is sad but unfortunately true that man learns nothing from history.”

C.G. Jung book Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle

Source: Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (1960), p. 33

Truth, Age, Sadness, History

“Everyone must learn to live and survive alone, because at some point you will be; we grow stronger without relying on others to subsist.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

2005

“Most psychologists agree at least some of our analytical ability is innate; however, most also agree common sense is not innate but derived from learned experiences; since common sense which I refer to as reasoned judgment requires analysis, then reasoned judgment must be partly innate.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

2002

Sense

“Well, then, says I, what's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was stuck. I couldn't answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn't bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time.”

Mark Twain book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Source: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), Ch. 16

Time

“You now have learned enough to see
That Cats are much like you and me
And other people whom we find
Possessed of various types of mind.
For some are sane and some are mad
And some are good and some are bad
And some are better, some are worse —
But all may be described in verse.”

T.S. Eliot book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

The Ad-dressing of Cats
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939)

Bad luck, People, Cats, Madness

“Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted? Who speaks now of the floods? I don’t know if these are the revenge of nature, but they are certainly nature’s responses. Today I believe we have to slow down our rate of production and consumption and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world. We need to reconnect with our real surroundings.”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

On the coronavirus and environmental crises. Cited in Pope salutes 'saints next door' in fight against coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/pope-salutes-saints-next-door-fight-against-coronavirus-hyprocrisy in the Guardian. (8 April 2020) <br class="br">2010s, 2020

World, Understanding, Revenge, Nature

“Balancing the budget is like protecting your virtue , you have to learn how to say no.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Interview, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on 01/03/1975 as shown on YouTube The Tonight Show video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNmnmdtcdcg <br class="br">1970s

“That's a very good way to learn the craft of writing — from reading.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Faulkner in the University, p. 117
Faulkner in the University (1959)

Way, Reading

“You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.”

Jack Ma (1964) Chinese businessman

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05iht-wbspot06.4109874.html, Spotlight: Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba.com - Business - International Herald Tribune, by SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOPJAN. 5, 2007 (The New York Times)

“Our home, pale blue dot in the vastness of universe's untouched beauty, a tiny spherical world, afloat in a immensity of space and time. Here for a moment, and then we're leaving for the eternity. In the school of mortality we learn to acrobat over the abyss.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

From the book "Universal consciousness"

World, School, Beauty, Home

“If you attended (a study session) strictly adopt three attitudes; there is no fourth. First: You can lock yourself in the silence of ignorance. Second: If you do not behave as such, ask for the questions a man seeking to learn asks…. This man will ask only about what he does not know, not about what he knows. Asking about matters one knows is making proof of ineptitude; this is only ranting, waste of time for everyone…. If the person you are questioning does not give satisfactory answers, stop questioning… Third: You can answer like a scientist, refuting clearly the other’s arguments. If you are not capable of that, do not insist….””

Ibn Hazm (994–1064) Arab theologian

ibid, 114-5

Making love, Question, Study, Silence

“No one has gone through life without acquiring scars and bruises. Some wounds are hidden inside us and only we can feel. They are badges of our day-to-day struggle to learn and survive.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1981

Life, Feeling

“Each day I rise with a hollow heart and gaze across the bed and wonder where you are and who you are with. I still love you but learned to live in peace.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1983

Love, Making love, Peace, Heart

“Quit telling us to forget the past and never look back. We learned from the past, gained wisdom from the past that we apply every day in the process of living. If we forget the past, we’ll forget who we are since that’s where we came from.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1990

Wisdom, Past, Forgetting

“I've learned now that this world isn't like Mother and Father. It doesn't care if we're happy, and it doesn't get sad when we die. We don't really matter to it at all.”

Aaron Guzikowski tv series Raised by Wolves

Raised by Wolves, Season 1, Episode 1. Character Campion.

Happiness, World, Sadness

“A simple strategy that will save you so many headaches: don’t care about winning trivial arguments. Did someone say something you don’t agree with? Smile, nod, and move on to more important things. Life is short. Learning to not care about having the last word will save you so much time.”

James Clear (1986) American author and speaker

Life, Smile, Time

“Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.”

Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American motivational speaker

Health, Search, Wealth

“Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.”

Dale Turner

Wisdom, Error, Success, Past

“I exhort you with all the ardour of my soul. Learn, instruct, encourage love of study, and you will have fulfilled your mission on earth.”

Marcelo H. del Pilar (1850–1896) Filipino writer, lawyer, and journalist (1850-1896)

Marcelo H. del Pilar to Josefa Gatmaitan (13 March 1889), in Epistolario de Marcelo H. del Pilar, vol. I, p.57

Love, Soul, Study

“The quickest way to happiness learning to be selfless.”

Macklemore (1983) American rapper from Washington

Source: Song Growing Up

Happiness, Way

“Every aspect of life is a piece of drammer,
Learn your lesson”

Dr. Manuel

Life

“Holy Scripture presents a kind of mirror to the eyes of the mind, so that our inner face may be seen in it. There we learn our own ugliness, there our own beauty.”

Pope Gregory I (540–604) Pope from 590 to 604

Morals in the Book of Job, 553d, as translated in Cultural Performances in Medieval France (2007), p. 129
Original: (la) Scriptura sacra mentis oculis quasi quoddam speculum opponitur, ut interna nostra facies in ipsa videatur. Ibi etenim foeda, ibi pulchra nostra cognoscimus.

Beauty

“You can see the beauty in things only after learning the meaning of the word 'beautiful'.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Beauty

“Mr. Devil lived in Heaven, but it seems he didn't learn anything good there. God is love. How did the devil get so wicked, even though he lived in Heaven for many years?”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love, God

“The best way to learn something new is to banish fanaticism in all of its shapes and forms.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Way

“I was amazed when I learned that in the West so many young people are on drugs. I tried to understand the reason for this. Why? The answer is, “because in the family there is nobody who cares about them.””

Matka Tereza (1910–1997) Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin

When receiving the Nobel peace price in 1979. As quoted from Hitchens, C. (2012). The missionary position: Mother Theresa in theory and practice.
Source: Fathers and mothers are so busy they have no time. Young parents work, and the child lives in the street and goes his own way. We speak of peace. These are the things that threaten peace. I think that today peace is threatened by abortion, too, which is a true war, the direct killing of a child by its own mother. In the Bible we read that God clearly said: “Even though a mother did forget her infant, I will not forget him.”Today, abortion is the worst evil, and the greatest enemy of peace. We who are here today were wanted by our parents. We would not be here if our parents had not wanted us.We want children, and we love them. But what about the other millions? Many are concerned about the children, like those in Africa, who die in great numbers either from hunger or for other reasons. But millions of children die intentionally, by the will of their mothers. Because if a mother can kill her own child, what will prevent us from killing ourselves, or one another? Nothing.

People, Family, Understanding

“I always had an interest in the story of everything. A little bit of an existential crisis always helps when you’re looking for a sea change. If I know anything, it’s that I never learned anything while I was talking.”

Robert Downey Jr. (1965) American actor

Source: "Robert Downey Jr. on Being an Entrepreneur: 'I Never Learned Anything While I Was Talking'" https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2021/04/02/robert-downey-jr-talks-businessman-irl (2 April 2021)

Change, Help, Sea

“It's okay to make mistakes but always learn from them. If things don't go as planned today don't forget that there's always tommorow and we all learn in this journey of life.”

Bisola Aiyeola (1986) Nigerian Actress

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20190527120634/https://www.concisenews.global/2018/08/14/bisola-aiyeola-inspires-fans-with-lessons-from-mistakes/ Bisola talks on learning from every mistakes.

Life, Forgetting

“Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn’t to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this?”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: Stillness Speaks (2003), Ch 9

Life, Death

“I'm stronger because I had to be.
I'm smarter because of my mistakes.
I'm happier because of the sadness I have had to know…
and now wiser
because I've learned.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Sadness

“Growth occurs outside the comfort zone.
You can not expect to evolve as a well rounded individual if you are afraid to get dirty.
I am never regretful of having tragedy and loss any longer…for I see how strong these horrendous experiences have caused me to become a pillar of strength amongst others.
From every negative circumstance any of us experience…there is another part of us that becomes engorged with strength
which not only allows us to get through that terrible circumstance, but maintain ourselves once the trauma has diminished enough for us to see things more clearly in retrospect…and experience this wonderful inner strength.
The struggle you're in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.
Strength comes from struggle. When you learn to see your struggles as opportunities to become stronger, better, wiser, then your thinking shifts from 'I can't do this' to 'I MUST do this!'
Also, The struggles in your life creates empathy. One can relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love you nor care that they are intentionally trying to decimate you. It is when you are faced with pure evil…when the people who were your life change and turn on you…enjoying to make you suffer. They know what they are doing. They are responsible for your pain.
Don't give up.
Look within.
Don't wear white.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Love, Life, Pain, People

“I have learned that…
you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.
No matter how much I care, some people just don't care back.
It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
It's not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life that counts.
You can do something in an instant that will give you a heartache for life.
No matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides.
You should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.
We are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
There are people who love you dearly, but just don't know how to show it.
True friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. The same goes for true love.
Just because someone doesnt love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.
No matter how good a friend someone is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.
No matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.
Just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.
We don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.
You shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.
There are so many ways of falling and staying in love.
No matter how many friends you have, if you are their pillar, you will feel lonely and lost at the times you need them most.
The people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon.
Although the word "love" can have many different meanings, it loses value when overly used.
Love is not for me to keep, but to pass on to the next person I see.
There are people who love you dearly but just don't know how to show it.
Every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch-holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
I still have a lot to learn……”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Love, Life, Friendship, People

“I don’t know if watching your own work is a good or bad thing. I don’t know how much I learn from it. Each individual circumstance holds its own world of singularities and peculiarities. But among that, you can go: “Oh yeah, I remember that was what I tried to do.””

Benedict Cumberbatch (1976) English actor and film producer

Sometimes it doesn’t fit with the cast or the energy of the scene or the beat of another character. But to sit down in the audience and go: “Oh my God, I think that was what I intended”, was great. <br class="br"> "Benedict Cumberbatch: ‘I loved not being a people-pleaser’" in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/17/benedict-cumberbatch-i-loved-not-being-a-people-pleaser (17 December 2021)

World

“I think that the one thing that we've learned in our union is that you don't wait. You just get out and you start doing things.”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

1974 speech, in Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic and Native Americans, 1790-1995 by Deborah Gillan Straub

Thinking, Waiting

“Even the best thought is not as good as the moment you detach from it. Even the most important content isn't as important as the moment you learn you can do without it. Like a good teacher.”

Joshua Leavitt

Teachers

“The need for critical media literacy and mass organizing has never been more urgent. If you want to go down the rabbit hole with me to learn more about the true nature of the US government and how we can unite to demilitarize our communities, check out The Empire Files.”

Abby Martin (1984) American journalist

Interview https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/20/what-are-the-prospects-for-peace-an-interview-with-abby-martin/ with Counterpunch (2021)

Communication, Nature

“O learn to read what silent love hath writ: To hear with eyes belongs to love´s fine wit.”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet

Source: Sonnet XXIII
Context: As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put besides his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength’s abundance weakens his own heart;
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love’s right,
And in mine own love’s strength seem to decay,
O’ercharged with burthen of mine own love’s might.
O, let my books be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast;
Who plead for love, and look for recompense,
More than that tongue that more hath more express’d.
O, learn to read what silent love hath writ:
To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit.

Love, Reading

“Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. With the best leaders when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say, "We have done this ourselves.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…

Only the final bold section is connected to Laozi (see Ch. 17 of Tao Te Ching above). The origin of the added first section is unclear.
Misattributed

Love, People

“Learn to take care of your person. When you need help, others will always be busy.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Impara a prenderti cura della tua persona. Quando avrai bisogno di aiuto, gli altri avranno sempre da fare.
Source: prevale.net

Business, Help, Personality

This quote waiting for review.

“With time, one learns that one’s work is never finished.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Manuel Raya Escritor. (2026, 21 marzo). ENTREVISTA AL ESCRITOR CHILENO JOSÉ BAROJA 🇨🇱✍🏼 [Vídeo]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBrHyubZCFM

Time

“Whenever I encounter a challenge in my life, I use the experience to learn and grow. I rise above all limitations.”

Jason Mraz (1977) American singer-songwriter

Life

“One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her~is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“We choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing, and the next world is the same as this one, all the same limitations and lead weights to overcome.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

World

“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Love, Feeling, Suffering, Change

“I never learned anything at all in school and didn't read a book for pleasure until I was 19 years old.”

Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor

Pleasure, Books, School, Reading

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“A place like this wears down everything, and tolerance is no exception. In here, coexistence passes for forgiveness. You do not learn to like something you abhor; you come to live with it… You live and let live, and eventually that becomes enough.”

Jodi Picoult Change of Heart

Source: Change of Heart

Forgiveness

“Usually when we hear or read something new, we just compare it to our own ideas. If it is the same, we accept it and say that it is correct. If it is not, we say it is incorrect. In either case, we learn nothing.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

Idea, Reading

“It is good to test your limits now and then, learn what the body is capable of, what you can endure.”

Christina Baker Kline (1964) American writer

Source: Orphan Train

“Every man I meet is in some way my superior; and in that I can learn of him.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

As quoted in Think, Vol. 4-5 (1938), p. 32

Way

“Nothing of any importance can be taught. It can only be learned, and with blood and sweat.”

Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath

“I'm learning that you have to make time for what's important. You have to fight to carve little pieces of happiness out of your life, or the everyday emergencies will eat up everything.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Cerulean Sins

Source: Cerulean Sins

Life, Happiness, Time, Fight

“Learning does not require faith, just intellect. Obedience requires faith.”

David Watson

Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery

Faith

“In a cruel land, you either learned to laugh at cruelty or spent your life weeping.”

Robert Jordan A Crown of Swords

Source: A Crown of Swords

Life

“Do you know what I think about crying? I think some people have to learn to do it. But once you learn, once you know how to really cry, there's nothing quite like it. I feel sorry for those who don't know the trick. It's like whistling or singing.”

Anne Rice book Memnoch the Devil

Source: Memnoch the Devil

People, Feeling, Thinking, Singing

“There're things we keep hidden from one another. Things we hide from ourselves. Things that are kept hidden from us. And things no one knows. You always learn the damnedest things at the worst possible times.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

Time

“The sooner we learn feelings are fickle, the better off we are.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Living Beyond Your Feelings: Controlling Emotions So They Don't Control You

Feeling

“I just read them for fun."
"Dictionaries?"
"Yes."
"That doesn't sound like fun. That sounds awful."
"Awful used to mean 'full of awe.' The same meaning as awesome. I learned that from a dictionary."
He blinked.
"See?" She said. "Fun.”

Max Barry (1973) Australian writer

Source: Lexicon

Reading

“Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose (1980)

“If there was anything I learned from John the Baptist, it was that the sooner you confess a mistake, the quicker you can get on to making new and better mistakes.”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

“Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading.”

Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American author

Source: On Writing

Reading, Parting

“Anything there is that I can do for you, I will do for you; anything there is that I cannot do, I will learn to do.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Why didn't I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Time, Future

“Please learn the pragmatics of expressing fear: sometimes words that seem to express really invoke.
This can be tricky.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Fear

“The quickest way to rectify that mistake (choosing the wrong person) is by learning from that, moving on, and choosing much more wisely in the future.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

Way, Future, Personality

“I have much to teach you. Come and learn the art of war from the one who invented it. (Takeshi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

War, Art

“Pain and suffering, they are a secret. Kindness and love, they are a secret. But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering.”

Alan Paton (1903–1988) South African writer and activist

Source: Cry, The Beloved Country

Love, Pain, Secret, Suffering

“There are no secrets to success: don’t waste time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence.”

Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general

Secret, Failure, Time, Success

“The lessons one learns at school are not always the ones the school thinks it's teaching.”

Salman Rushdie book Joseph Anton: A Memoir

Source: Joseph Anton: A Memoir

School, Thinking

“The last to learn of gossip are the parties concerned”

Khushwant Singh Train to Pakistan

Source: Train to Pakistan

“That’s when I first learned that it wasn’t enough to just do your job, you had to have an interest in it, even a passion for it.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Passion, Back To Work

“This was not of the nature of a Christlike lesson for Owen Meany to learn, as he lay in the manger, that someone you hate can give you a hard-on.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany

Hate, Nature

“When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.”

Stephen Jay Gould book An Urchin in the Storm

"The Quack Detector", p. 245
An Urchin in the Storm (1987)
Context: [A]s we discern a fine line between crank and genius, so also (and unfortunately) we must acknowledge an equally graded trajectory from crank to demagogue. When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

People, Hope

“There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

School, Affliction

“I learned long ago that in order to heal my wounds, I must have the courage to face up with them.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Courage

“When you grow up--and from the look of things, you have awhile--but you learn things never go back to normal simply because everyone's sorry. Sorry is ridiculous.”

Marisha Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Source: Special Topics in Calamity Physics

“The humble listen to their brothers and sisters because they assume they have something to learn. They are open to correction, and they become wiser through it.”

Thomas Dubay (1921–2010) American Catholic priest, author, and retreat director

Sister

“Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself.”

Paulo Coelho book The Pilgrimage

Source: The Pilgrimage

Teachers' Day

“We have to make mistakes, it's how we learn compassion for others.”

Curtis Sittenfeld (1975) Novelist, short story writer

Source: American Wife

“I had learned that you should always shout louder than your aggressor.”

Marjane Satrapi (1969) Artist

Source: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

“If I've learned one lesson from all that's happened to me, it's that there is no such thing as the biggest mistake of your existence. There's no such thing as ruining your life. Life's a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Undomestic Goddess

Source: The Undomestic Goddess

Life

“You might as well learn right now, you two, that the poorest guide you can have in life is what people will say.”

Maud Hart Lovelace book Heaven to Betsy

Source: Heaven to Betsy

Life, People

“Perhaps as you went along you did learn something. I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises

Variant: I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what is was all about.
Source: The Sun Also Rises

“Shri Ramakrishna use to say, "As Long as I Live, so long do I learn". That man or that society which has nothing to learn is already in the jaws of death.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Death

“I never did learn how to live in the moment, but I did learn that moments could be wasted and the world would continue to spin on its axis.”

Eloisa James (1962) American academic

Source: Paris in Love

World

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours..”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Variant: I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Source: Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

Life, Dreams, Confidence, Imagination

“A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

People, Way, Reading

“I needed to let them know they couldn't hurt me. I've learned that the best way to stay safe is to make your enemies think you can't be hurt.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Way, Thinking, Hurt

Quotes about learning page 11

Quotes about learning
page 11