Quotes about learning
page 34

Norbert Wiener photo
Joseph Gordon-Levitt photo
Friedrich Schleiermacher photo
Arthur Jensen photo
Peter F. Drucker photo
Abraham Pais photo

“One of the absolute rules I learned in the war was, don't know anything you don't need to know, because if you ever get caught they will get it out of you.”

Abraham Pais (1918–2000) American Physicist

Source: To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue (2000), p. 50

Mahasi Sayadaw photo

“Success in the marketplace increasingly depends on learning, yet most people don't know how to learn.”

Chris Argyris (1923–2013) American business theorist/Professor Emeritus/Harvard Business School/Thought Leader at Monitor Group

Chris Argyris (1991, p. 99) as cited in: Greenwood (2000) The Role of Reflection in Managerial Learning. p. xv

Ernest Bramah photo

“One learns to itch where one can scratch.”

The Story of Wong Choi and the Merchant Teen King's Thumb
Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat (1928)

Jane Roberts photo
John C. Wright photo
Alan M. Dershowitz photo
Billy Joel photo
Gary Gygax photo

“I think a lot of what I was taught, gathered, and learned is worth keeping. Heritage and "wisdom" and simply personal family and local history enrich the one able to tap such information. As it is I wish I had garnered more from my grandparents and parents.”

Gary Gygax (1938–2008) American writer and game designer

"An Interview with Gary Gygax" by Christopher Smith at Lejendary Adventure http://www.lejendary.com/la/template.php?page=garygygax&style=blaze

Harry Blackmun photo
Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“Copying or emulating heroes is true power learning.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Heidi Klum photo
Jahangir photo

“On the 24th of the same month I went to see the fort of Kangra, and gave an order that the Qazi, the Chief Justice (Mir'Adl), and other learned men of Islam should accompany me and carry out in the fort whatever was customary, according to the religion of Muhammad. Briefly, having traversed about one koss, I went up to the top of the fort, and by the grace of God, the call to prayer and the reading of the Khutba and the slaughter of a bullock which had not taken place from the commencement of the building of the fort till now, were carried out in my presence. I prostrated myself in thanksgiving for this great gift, which no king had hoped to receive, and ordered a lofty mosque to be built inside the fort' ….'After going round the fort I went to see the temple of Durga, which is known as Bhawan. A world has here wandered in the desert of error. Setting aside the infidels whose custom is the worship of idols, crowds of the people of Islam, traversing long distances, bring their offerings and pray to the black stone (image)' Some maintain that this stone, which is now a place of worship for the vile infidels, is not the stone which was there originally, but that a body of the people of Islam came and carried off the original stone, and threw it into the bottom of the river, with the intent that no one could get at it. For a long time the tumult of the infidels and idol-worshippers had died away in the world, till a lying brahman hid a stone for his own ends, and going to the Raja of the time said: 'I saw Durga in a dream, and she said to me: They have thrown me into a certain place: quickly go and take me up.”

Jahangir (1569–1627) 4th Mughal Emperor

The Raja, in the simplicity of his heart, and greedy for the offerings of gold that would come to him, accepted the tale of the brahman and sent a number of people with him, and brought that stone, and kept it in this place with honour, and started again the shop of error and misleading
Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) , Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, translated into English by Alexander Rogers, first published 1909-1914, New Delhi Reprint, 1978, Vol. II, pp. 223-25.

William Ellery Channing photo
Peter Sloterdijk photo

“Cynicism is enlightened false consciousness. It is that modernized, unhappy consciousness, on which enlightenment has labored both successfully and in vain. It has learned its lessons in enlightenment, but it has not, and probably was not able to, put them into practice. Well-off and miserable at the same time, this consciousness no longer feels affected by any critique of ideology; its falseness is already reflexively buffered.”

Peter Sloterdijk (1947) German philosopher

Zynismus ist das aufgeklärte falsche Bewußtsein, an dem Aufklärung zugleich erfolgreich und vergeblich gearbeitet hat. Es hat seine Aufklärungselektion gelernt, aber nicht vollzogen und wohl nicht vollziehen können. Gutsituiert und miserabel zugleich fühlt sich dieses Bewußtsein von keiner Ideologiekritik mehr betroffen; seine Falschheit ist bereits reflexiv gefedert.
Source: Kritik der zynischen Vernunft [Critique of Cynical Reason] (1983), pp. 5-6

Pat Murphy photo

“You may learn a few things,” she said. “And that’s always good.”

Source: There and Back Again (1999), Chapter 7 (p. 123)

Warren Farrell photo
Wilhelm II, German Emperor photo

“I am just now not reading but devouring Captain Mahan's book and am trying to learn it by heart. It is a first-class book and classical on all points.”

Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) German Emperor and King of Prussia

Letter to an American friend (1893), quoted in John Rohl, Wilhelm II: The Kaiser's Personal Monarchy 1888-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 1003
1890s

Andreas Karlstadt photo
Gregory Benford photo

“Man doesn’t have to take a gamble just ’cause it’s there. You got to learn that.”

Gregory Benford (1941) Science fiction author and astrophysicist

Part 2 “Aleph”, Chapter 3 (p. 68)
Against Infinity (1983)

William S. Burroughs photo

“Stupid people can learn a language quiet and easy because there is nothing going on in there to keep it out.”

William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer

Two Years Later: Mexico City Return
Queer: A Novel (1985)

John Crowley photo

“Common to all these enemies is that none of them accepts the reality of the "whole system": we do not exist in such a system. Furthermore, in the case of morality, religion, and aesthetics, at least a part of our reality reality as human is not "in" any system, and yet it plays a central role in our lives.
To me these enemies provide a powerful way of learning about the systems approach, precisely because they enable the rational mind to step outside itself and to observe itself”

C. West Churchman (1913–2004) American philosopher and systems scientist

from the vantage point of the enemies
Churchman had identified four generic enemies: politics, morality, religion, and aesthetics.
Source: 1960s - 1970s, The Systems Approach and Its Enemies (1979), p. 24; Partly as cited in: Reynolds, Martin (2003). "Social and Ecological Responsibility: A Critical Systemic Perspective." In: Critical Management Studies Conference 'Critique and Inclusively: Opening the Agenda'; in the stream OR/Systems Thinking for Social Improvement, 7-9 July 2003, Lancaster University, UK.

Rufus Wainwright photo

“Putting all of my time
In learning to care
And a bucket of rhymes
I threw up somewhere
Want a locket of who
Made me lose my perfunctory view
Of all that is around
And of all that I do.”

Rufus Wainwright (1973) American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer

I Don't Know What It Is
Song lyrics, Want One (2003)

John Crowley photo
Swami Vivekananda photo

“Complex human learning is a concept involving communication between the participant in the learning process, who commonly occupy the roles of learner and teacher.”

Gordon Pask (1928–1996) British psychologist

Pask (1976) "Conversational techniques in the study and practice of education", In: British Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 46, p. 24.

Klaus Kinski photo
Robert Boyle photo

“The phaenomena afforded by trades, are a part of the history of nature, and therefore may both challenge the naturalist's curiosity and add to his knowledge, Nor will it suffice to justify learned men in the neglect and contempt of this part of natural history, that the men, from whom it must be learned, are illiterate mechanicks… is indeed childish, and too unworthy of a philosopher, to be worthy of an honest answer.”

Robert Boyle (1627–1691) English natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor

Compare Francis Bacon's The Great Instauration
"That the Goods of Mankind May be Much Increased by the Naturalist's Insight into Trades" in the Works of Robert Boyle, (1772) Vol.3 as quoted in Clifford D. Conner, A People's History of Science (2005)

Jennifer Beals photo

“Just when you think you know something, it gets turned around and challenged in some way. But those changes are welcome because you end up learning more.”

Jennifer Beals (1963) American actress and a former teen model

Interview in First for Women magazine (February 8, 2010, p. 46) http://jennifer-beals.com/media/press/first.html.

Pierre Trudeau photo

“I never actually got around to taping conversations with my guests, but there are a lot of things you can learn from a man like Nixon.”

Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) 15th Prime Minister of Canada

Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 216
Memoirs (1993)

“You will turn over many a futile new leaf till you learn we must all write on scratched-out pages.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Christopher Hitchens photo
Orson Scott Card photo
Paula Modersohn-Becker photo
Stephen Harper photo
Daniel Dennett photo
Terry Brooks photo
Happy Rhodes photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo
Gloria Estefan photo
Michael Swanwick photo

“Be grateful. I’ve taught you a valuable lesson. Most people never do learn exactly how much they will do to stay alive.”

Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 13, “A View from a Height” (p. 232)

John Calvin photo

“Being humbled, we learn to call upon his strength which alone makes us stand up under such a load of afflictions.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Page 50.
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life (1551)

E.M. Forster photo
Mortimer J. Adler photo
Bill Clinton photo
George W. Bush photo

“We are just beginning to learn that our same old habits, like the exploitation of nonrenewable resources, may make us at one with the auk and the dodo.”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

"What is 'The Fittest'?" http://books.google.com/books?id=NzNpn-cojqYC&q=%22We+are+just+beginning+to+learn+that+our+same+old+habits+like+the+exploitation+of+nonrenewable+resources+may+make+us+at+one+with+the+auk+and+the+dodo%22&pg=PA118#v=onepage, syndicated (3 September 1980) http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Kf8cAAAAIBAJ&sjid=so4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2474,200754
Pieces of Eight (1982)

Joseph Smith, Jr. photo
Vincent Gallo photo

“A doctrine which, because of its little-circumspect idealism, offends not just faith, but reason itself (KANT): it would be useful to show the dangerous errors, to Religion as much as to Moral, of that French psychologist, who seduced minds (COUSIN), by showing how his bold and audacious philosophy breaks the barrier of the holy Theology, placing his own authority before any other: he profanes the mysteries, declaring them partly devoid of meaning, and partly reducing them to vulgar allusions and pure metaphors; forces, as a learned Critic noted, the revelation to swap places with instinctive thought and assertion without reflection without and places reason outside man, declaring man a fragment of God, introducing a sort of spiritual pandeism, which is absurd to us and insulting to the Supreme Being, which gravely offends freedom itself, etc, etc.”

Luigi Ferrarese (1795–1855) Italian physician

Dottrina, che pel suo idealismo poco circospetto , non solo la fede, ma la stessa ragione offende (il sistema di KANT) : farebbe mestieri far aperto gli errori pericolosi, cosi alla Religione, come alla Morale, di quel psicologo franzese , il quale ha sedotte le menti (COUSIN), con far osservare come la di lui filosofia intraprendente ed audace sforza le barriere della sacra Teologia, ponendo innanzi ad ogn' altra autorità la propria : profana i misteri , dichiarandoli in parte vacui di senso, ed in parte riducendoli a volgari allusioni, ed a prette metafore ; costringe , come faceva osservare un dotto Critico, la rivelazione a cambiare il suo posto con quello del pensiero istintivo e dell' affermazione senza riflessione e colloca la ragione fuori della persona dell'uomo dichiarandolo un frammento di Dio, una spezie di pandeismo spirituale introducendo, assurdo per noi, ed al Supremo Ente ingiurioso, il quale reca onda grave alla libertà del medesimo, ec, ec.
Ferrarese describing pandeism in Memorie Risguardanti la Dottrina Frenologica ("Thoughts Regarding the Doctrine of Phrenology", 1838), p. 16.

Nigel Cumberland photo

“Learn to become like Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who found that those moments of having to be humble and having to ‘eat his own words’ were invaluable.”

Nigel Cumberland (1967) British author and leadership coach

Source: Your Job-Hunt Ltd – Advice from an Award-Winning Asian Headhunter (2003), Successful Recruitment in a Week (2012) https://books.google.ae/books?idp24GkAsgjGEC&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIGjAA#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, Managing Teams in a Week (2013) https://books.google.ae/books?idqZjO9_ov74EC&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIIDAB#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, Secrets of Success at Work – 50 techniques to excel (2014) https://books.google.ae/books?id4S7vAgAAQBAJ&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIJjAC#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, p.98

Tommy Franks photo

“Another hallway led to a green steel door. "This is the execution chamber," the officer said. "The day of the execution, we take the man through this door." He opened the green door, and we blinked at the bright lights inside. A big chair filled the room. I could smell leather. "All right, boys," he said. "Line up." The kids made a straight line that led out the green door, then moved ahead, one at a time, to sit in the big wooden chair. "This is the electric chair, Tommy Ray," my dad explained. "It's where murderers are executed." The boys inched forward. Some sat longer in the chair than others. Executed meant killed, that much I knew. "This is the ultimate consequence for the ultimate act of evil," my father told the troop. When all the boys had sat in the chair, it was my turn. I reached up and felt the smooth wood, the leather straps with cold metal buckles. There was a black steel cap dangling up there like a lamp without a bulb. "Up you go, Tommy Ray," Dad said, hoisting me into the chair. The boys were staring at me. But I wasn't even a little bit afraid. My father stood right beside me. I could feel his warm hand next to the cool metal buckle. As the school bus rumbled out of the prison parking lot that afternoon, I stared back at the high walls. I had learned another important lesson. A consequence was what followed what you did. If you did good things, you'd be rewarded with further good things. If you broke the law, you'd have to pay the price. I have never forgotten that lesson.”

Tommy Franks (1945) United States Army general

Source: American Soldier (2004), p. 8

Geert Wilders photo

“What I'm trying to do when I visit your beautiful country, Australia, is warn Australians that even though it might not be the case today, learn from the mistakes that we made in Europe: be vigilant and look at Islam for what it really is. Islam is not a religion of peace.”

Geert Wilders (1963) Dutch politician

Anti-Islam campaigner coming to Australia http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3689995.htm. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcast: 13/02/2013. Reporter: Tony Jones.
2010s

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“You see, true learning takes energy, passion, a burning desire.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Niels Henrik Abel photo
Kevin Kelly photo

“The hardest lesson for humans to learn: that organic complexity will entail organic time.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995)

Ann Coulter photo

“[Learning difficulties are a cover for] rich parents with dumb kids…That's why 'Pinch' Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, is alleged to have dyslexia — because he's retarded.”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

As quoted in Ann Coulter: The blonde assassin" in The Independent 16 August 2004).
2004

Eudora Welty photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
John Muir photo
Xun Zi photo
Hardinge Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury photo
Robert Maynard Hutchins photo
Billy Joel photo
Rachel Trachtenburg photo

“I'm learning to play piano. And also the musical saw.”

Rachel Trachtenburg (1993) American musician

On learning to play new instruments ( Teen Vogue http://www.slideshowplayers.com/press/Teenvogue_feb07.html)

Jeanette Winterson photo
Ed Yourdon photo

“OOA - Object-Oriented Analysis - is based upon concepts that we first learned in kindergarten: objects and attributes, wholes and parts, classes and members.”

Ed Yourdon (1944–2016) American software engineer and pioneer in the software engineering methodology

Source: Object-oriented design (1991), p. 1; cited in: Sten Carlsson and Benneth Christiansson. (1999) " The Concept of Object and its Relation to Human Thinking: Some Misunderstandings Concerning the Connection between Object-Orientation and Human Thinking http://www.vits.org/publikationer/dokument/289.pdf." Informatica, Lith. Acad. Sci. 10.2. p. 147-160.

Eliezer Yudkowsky photo
Richard Feynman photo

“I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding; they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

Part 1: "From Rockaway to MIT", "Who Stole the Door?", p. 36-37
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)

Linda Blair photo

“Every time I watch it, I still see something new, and I’ve seen it a lot as you can imagine. When fans only talk about the scares, they’re not really learning anything, which is a shame because Billy really put a lot of thematic elements in this movie that are supposed to make you think. It wasn’t just about scaring people; it was a family drama that had horrific elements.”

Linda Blair (1959) actress, producer, animal rights activist

Exclusive: Linda Blair Reflects on 40 Years with The Exorcist for FEARnet’s February 17th Five-Film Marathon http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/41504/exclusive-linda-blair-reflects-on-40-years-with-the-exorcist-for-fearnet-s-february-17th-five-film-marathon/ (February 16, 2013)

Bryan Caplan photo
Lars Løkke Rasmussen photo
Andrew Hsia photo

“The two sides (Mainland China and Taiwan) should learn a lesson from history and never fight each other again.”

Andrew Hsia (1950) Taiwanese politician

Source: Andrew Hsia (2015) cited in " Hsia, Zhang evoke the past at Taiwan-China meeting http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201505230020.aspx" on Focus Taiwan, 23 May 2015.

Paula Modersohn-Becker photo
Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“5085. 'Tis harder to unlearn than learn.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Julian of Norwich photo
Philip Warren Anderson photo
Max Schmeling photo

“I said to myself, 'You're a man from a humble background, what you didn't learn in school, you'll learn now. Catch up.”

Max Schmeling (1905–2005) German boxer

On becoming famous. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/fight/peopleevents/p_schmeling.html

Vin Scully photo

“The ability to throw 100 mph cannot be taught, cannot be learned, it can only be God-given.”

Vin Scully (1927) American sports broadcaster

Commenting on Kenley Jansen's first pitching appearance in the MLB on July 24, 2010

Robert Lynn Asprin photo

“The more I learn about history, the more savage I find it was.”

Robert Lynn Asprin (1946–2008) American science fiction and fantasy author

Source: Wagers of Sin (1996), Chapter 19 (p. 372)

Dmitri Bulykin photo

“Dmitry confessed once that he learned English hoping to play in England one day.”

Dmitri Bulykin (1979) Russian association football player

(Yuri Zavarzin, former owner of FC Dynamo)<ref> Мартин ГАШЕК ПОЧЕМУ БЫ БРАТУ-ДОМИНАТОРУ ТАКЖЕ НЕ ПОИГРАТЬ В "ДИНАМО"?! http://footbik.narod.ru/RF2004/obz_kom/obzorDYNAMO2.htm