Quotes about learning
page 17

“The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Happiness, Success

“I dont believe in learning from other peoples pictures. I think you should learn from your own interior vision of things and discover, as I say, Innocently, as though there had never been anybody.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

People, Thinking

“People who cling to their illusions find it difficult, if not impossible, to learn anything worth learning: a people under the necessity of creating themselves must examine everything, and soak up learning the way the roots of a tree soak up water.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

People, Way, Tree, Water

“Bromidic though it may sound, some questions don't have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn.”

Katharine Graham (1917–2001) American publisher

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)

Question

“… no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”

Julia Child My Life in France

Source: My Life in France

Cooking

“Where did you learn to kiss like that?” I said, a little breathless. He grinned and pulled me close again.

“I said I was a virgin, not a monk,” he said, kissing me again. “If I find I need guidance, I’ll ask.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

Kiss

“Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open.”

Laura Bush (1946) First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009

As quoted in The 21st Century Elementary Library Media Program (2009) by Carl A. Harvey, p. 3

Children, World, Question

“I want to keep feeling the way I feel when I'm with you. Just tell me what I have to do. And give me some room to screw up. I've never done this before. There's a learning curve.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Way, Feeling

“I've developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Wisdom, Books, Time, Reading

“This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!”

Julia Child My Life in France

Source: My Life in France

People, Cooking

“The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 39

Time

“People learned to live with the
most unimaginable things.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

People

“Know that ever about you stands the reality of love, and each moment you have the power to transform your world by what you have learned.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

Love, World, Reality

“I'm learning all the time."
"Well, you're a scholar.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Time

“It must happen to us all…We pack up what we’ve learned so far and leave the familiar behind. No fun, that shearing separation, but somewhere within, we must dimly know that saying goodbye to safety brings the only security we’ll ever know.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit

“So I learned two things that night, and the next day, from him: the perfection of a moment, and the fleeting nature of it.”

Margaret George book The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Source: The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Nature, Perfection, Night

“… you have to learn where your pain is. You have to burrow down and find the wound, and if the burden of it is too terrible to shoulder, you have to shout it out; you have to shout for help… And then finally, the way through grief is grieving.”

Jane Hamilton (1957) American novelist

Pain, Way, Help

“That life isn't fair?" Yeah, that, of course. But I also learned that it's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief… lessens.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Tim Wheddon, Chapter 20, p. 265
Variant: ... I learned that it's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief... lessens. It may not ever go away completely, but after a while it's not overwhelming.
Source: 2000s, Dear John (2006)

Life, Time

“Watch, listen, and learn. You can't know it all yourself—anyone who thinks that they do is destined for mediocrity.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Trump: The Way to the Top: The Best Business Advice I Ever Received (2004), p. 20
2000s

Thinking

“most of all, I learned that it's possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there's been a lifetime of disappointment between them.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Wedding

Wilson Lewis, Epilogue, p. 262-263
Variant: But most of all, I learned that it’s possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there’s been a lifetime of disappointment between them.
Source: 2000s, The Wedding (2003)
Context: The events of the past year have taught me much about myself, and a few universal truths. I learned, for instance, that while wounds can be inflicted easily upon those we love, it's often much more difficult to heal them. Yet the process of healing those wounds provided the richest experience of my life, leading me to believe that while I've often overestimated what I could accomplish in a day, I had underestimated what I could do in a year. But most of all, I learned that it's possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there's been a lifetime of disappointment between them.

Love, People, Disappointment

“Early on, he'd learned to enjoy simple things, things that couldn't be bought, and he had a hard time understanding people who felt otherwise.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

People, Understanding, Time

“Just as our parents quieted us when we were noisy by putting us in front of the television set, maybe we're now learning to quiet our own adult noise with Prozac.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

Parent

“The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Pain

“In the end, just three things matter:

How well we have lived
How well we have loved
How well we have learned to let go”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Love

“She wasn't tracking down her father to learn more about him. She was tracking him down to learn more about herself.”

Brad Meltzer book The Inner Circle

Source: The Inner Circle

“It is only by struggling with difficult books, books over one's head, that anyone learns to read.”

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator

Source: Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind (1990), p. 315

Books, Reading

“I learned my realism from guys like Kafka.”

Robert Coover (1932) writer, teacher

Guy

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in”

Morrie Schwartz (1916–1995) American sociologist

Source: Morrie: In His Own Words

Love, Life, Deep, Relationship

“Memoir is about handing over you life to someone and saying, This is what I went through, this is who I am, and maybe you can learn something from it.”

Jeannette Walls (1960) American writer and journalist

Life

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)

Love, Life, Deep, Relationship

“It stands to reason that anyone who learns to live well will die well. The skills are the same: being present in the moment, and humble, and brave, and keeping a sense of humor. (361)”

Victoria Moran (1950) American writer

Source: Younger by the Day: 365 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Body and Revitalize Your Spirit

Sense

“We've learned to see the world in gasps.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

World

“The learned ignore the evidence of their senses to preserve the coherence of the ideas of their imagination.”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Imagination, Idea, Sense

“A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

Love, Personality, Heart Touching

“But life isn’t about learning to forgive those who have hurt you or forgetting your past. It’s about learning to forgive yourself for being human and making mistakes.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Time Untime

Life, Forgiveness, Past, Hurt

“By now he had learned enough to know that when he was getting annoyed at somebody else, it was usually because there was something that he himself should be doing, and he wasn't doing it.”

Lev Grossman The Magician King

Source: The Magician King

“I've learned never to close my mind to an idea simply because it seems miraculous.”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

Idea

“She looks honestly upset, but then, I’ve learned that I can’t read her. The problem with a really excellent liar is that you have to just assume they’re always lying.”

Holly Black book Black Heart

Source: Black Heart

Lying, Problem, Reading

“I never learned from a man who agreed with me.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Inspirational, Powerful

“Before you conquer the mountain, you must learn to overcome your fear.”

Isabel Allende book City of the Beasts

Source: City of the Beasts

Fear, Mountain

“Men. The day they learned to admit to a mistake was the day they became women.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: To Sir Phillip, With Love

Women, Men

“Learning another language is like becoming another person.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Personality

“Everybody’s gotta learn, nobody’s born knowing.”

Harper Lee (1926–2016) American author

“Jude remembered this pain. Every woman had felt some version of it: the end of first love. It was when you learned, for good and always, that love could be impermanent.”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Night Road

Love, Pain

“When you chase a dream, you learn about yourself. You learn your capabilities and limitations, and the value of hard work and persistence.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Nicholas Sparks, Chapter 11, p. 187
2000s, Three Weeks with My Brother (2004)
Source: Three Weeks With My Brother

Dreams

“To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life”

Vincent Van Gogh book The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Source: The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Life, Suffering

“I prefer sinners and madmen, who can learn, who can change, who can teach-or people like myself, if I may say so, who are not afraid to eat a lobster alone as they take on their shoulders the monumental weight of thirty years”

James Baldwin book Just Above My Head

Source: Just Above My Head

People, Change

“Look at me, Mariam.'
Reluctantly, Mariam did.
Nana said, 'Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Daughters

“I decided that adventure was the best way to learn about writing.”

Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer

Way

“One learns that the world, though made, is yet being made. That this is still the morning of creation. That mountains, long conceived, are now being born, brought to light by the glaciers, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hollowed for lakes.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

"Alaska Glaciers: Graphic Description of the Yosemite of the Far Northwest", San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin (part 5 of 11 part series "Notes of a Naturalist") dated 7 September 1879, published 27 September 1879; reprinted as "Baird Glacier" in Letters from Alaska, edited by Robert Engberg and Bruce Merrell (University of Wisconsin Press, 1993), pages 28-32 (at page 31); modified slightly and reprinted in Travels in Alaska http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/travels_in_alaska/ (1915), chapter 5, A Cruise in the Cassiar First lines of the documentary film series " The National Parks: America's Best Idea http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/" by Ken Burns. 1910s

World, Mountain, Light

“I don't always understand poetry!'

'You don't always understand it? Timms, I never understand it. But learn it now, know it now and you will understand it… whenever.”

Alan Bennett The History Boys

Source: The History Boys

Understanding

“Without pain, there would be no suffering. Without suffering, we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life.”

Angelina Jolie (1975) American actress, film director, and screenwriter

Life, Pain, Way, Suffering

“You will learn a lot about yourself if you stretch in the direction of goodness, of bigness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of emotional bravery. Be a warrior for love.”

Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Love, Forgiveness

“You learned this,” Kabsal said, lifting up her drawing of Jasnah, “from a book.”
“Er…yes?”
He looked back at the picture. “I need to read more.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Books, Reading, Drawing

“You can learn to change the world or go on being changed by it.”

Laurence Yep book Dragon's Gate

Source: Dragon's Gate

World, Change

“Mingling with people, hurting them, getting hurt by them…that's how you learn about others…and about yourself. If you don't you'll never be able to care about anyone but yourself.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 23

People, Hurt

“What we're learning in our schools is not the wisdom of life. We're learning technologies, we're getting information. There's a curious reluctance on the part of faculties to indicate the life values of their subjects.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Life, Wisdom, School, Parting

“Men of learning are those who have read the contents of books. Thinkers, geniuses, and those who have enlightened the world and furthered the race of men, are those who have made direct use of the book of the world.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

"Thinking for Oneself" http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/essays/chapter8.html Essays

Men, Books, World, Reading

“Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience. If we could learn from mere experience, the stones of London would be wiser than its wisest men.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

#127-128
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)

Men

“The time comes when each of us has to give up as illusions the expectations which, in his youth, he pinned upon his fellow-men, and when he may learn how much difficulty and pain has been added to his life by their ill-will.”

Sigmund Freud book Civilization and Its Discontents

Source: Civilization and Its Discontents

Life, Men, Pain, Youth

“What other people label or might try to call failure, I have learned is just God's way of pointing you in a new direction.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Oprah's commencement speech at Howard University (12 May 2007) http://www.graduationwisdom.com/speeches/0024-winfrey.htm

God, People, Way, Failure

“It is possible to avoid pain? Yes, but you'll never learn anything. Is it possible to know something without ever having experiencing it? Yes, but it will never truly be part of you.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Pain, Parting

“I find I don't learn a lot while I'm talking”

Jeffrey Archer book Only Time Will Tell

Source: Only Time Will Tell

“I've learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Children, Parent

“One day, you're going to learn something that can't be explained with science. And when that happens, your life's going to change in ways you can't imagine.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Doris McClellan, Chapter 3, p. 54
Source: 2000s, True Believer (2005)

Life, Way, Imagination, Science

“You must learn from your past mistakes, but not lean on your past successes.”

Denis Waitley (1933) American writer

Success, Past

“I've learned that everyone can do their part to repair the world”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: 13 Gifts

World, Parting

“I don't mind walking. I always feel so sorry for women who don't like to walk; they miss so much--so many rare little glimpses of life; and we women learn so little of life on the whole.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Life, Women, Feeling

“I once wrestled with an angel. He won, but I learned a few things.”

Arturo Pérez-Reverte (1951) Spanish writer and journalist

Angels

“whenever I read a passage that moves me, I transcribe it in my diary, hoping my fingers might learn what excellence feels like.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

Hope, Feeling, Reading

“Learning is not the accumulation of knowledge, but rather, one thing only: understanding”

Donna Jo Napoli (1948) American children's writer and linguist

Understanding, Knowledge

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

Interview with Robert van Gelder (April 1947), as quoted in John Steinbeck : A Biography (1994) by Jay Parini

Idea

“Delete nothing. Move nothing. Change nothing. Learn everything.”

Poppy Z. Brite (1967) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

Change

“You are human, you will make mistakes, and it’s one of the most beautiful things about being human, but you must learn from your mistakes, otherwise your life will have a lot of unnecessary pain.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Magic

Source: The Magic

Life, Pain, Beauty

“That the young rich smell the stink of the poor and learn to find it a bit amusing. They had to laugh, otherwise it would be too terrifying.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“I finally learned that it was all right to say something wasn’t working for me when it wasn’t working. The world doesn’t come crashing down when you speak the truth.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Secret Life of Prince Charming

Truth, World

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Variant: The more that you read,
The more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
The more places you’ll go.
Source: I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (1978)

Reading

“If you’re really hard up, I can introduce you to my grandmother. She’s a fan.” Adam blinked. “She doesn’t typically sleep with pretty young things, but she would make an exception in your case. You might even learn a trick or two.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

Sleep

“You learn nothing about men by snubbing them and crushing their pride. You must ask them what it is they can do in this world, that they alone can do.”

Hilary Mantel book Wolf Hall

Source: Wolf Hall

Men, World

“And yet it disturbs me to learn I have hurt someone unintentionally. I want all my hurts to be intentional.”

Margaret Atwood book Cat's Eye

Source: Cat's Eye

Hurt

“If you are not learning while you’re earning, you are cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Cheating

“How does the ordinary person come to the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message. It may come gradually. (92)”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

Study, Reading, Personality

“Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Context: You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self.
Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.

Future

“According to Plato, we don't learn anything. Our soul has lived so many lives that we know everything. Teachers and education can only remind us of what we already know.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Source: Diary

Education, Soul, Teachers

“He died that day because his body had served its purpose. His soul had done what it came to do, learned what it came to learn, and then was free to leave.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

Soul

“We've devoted our lives to learning about them!" Miro said.

Ender stopped. "Not from them.”

Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead

Source: Speaker for the Dead

“Perhaps to be able to learn things quickly isn't everything. To be kind is worth a great deal to other people… Lots of clever people have done harm and have been wicked.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

People

“An easy life doesn't teach us anything. In the end it's the learning that matters: what we've learned and how we've grown”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

Life

“Our lives are determined less by our childhood than by the traumatic way we have learned to remember our childhoods.”

James Hillman (1926–2011) American psychologist

Way, Childhood

“I went to college, but I learned to write by reading and writing.”

Daniel Pinkwater (1941) writer

Reading

“No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”

Booker T. Washington book Up from Slavery

Chapter XIV: The Atlanta Exposition Address http://books.google.com/books?id=xN45ZsUMgKEC&q=%22No+race+can+prosper+till+it+learns+that+there+is+as+much+dignity+in+tilling+a+field+as+in+writing+a+poem+It+is+at+the+bottom+of+life+we+must+begin+and+not+at+the+top%22&pg=PA220#v=onepage 1900s, Up From Slavery (1901) Context: No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.

“I tend to watch silently from the shadows. You learn a lot more that way.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Way