“Now, before I begin, I'd just like to clear the air about that little controversy everybody was talking about a few weeks back. I have to tell you, I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. It won't happen again. President Crow and the board of regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.”

— Barack Obama

Commencement Address at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/DCPD-200900360/html/DCPD-200900360.htm (13 May 2009)
2009

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Barack Obama 1158

44th President of the United States of America 1961

Sabrina Ward Harrison (1975) Canadian writer

Source: Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself

“It was the first time I was ever in love, and I learned a lot. Before that I'd never even thought about killing myself.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“This year I learned the most important lesson in my life, which is to never make fun of men; and if you have to make fun of them, just joke about their success.”

Yang Li (1992) Chinese stand-up comedian

Source: "‘Sexist’ female stand-up comedian Yang Li’s return sweeps Chinese social media again by gender issues" https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1231854.shtml?id=11 in Global Times (18 August 2021)

“My dog, by the way, thinks I have much to learn about partridges, and, being a professional naturalist, I agree.”

Aldo Leopold book A Sand County Almanac

“October: Red Lanterns”, p. 63.
A Sand County Almanac, 1949, "August: The Green Pasture," "September: The Choral Copse," "October: Smoky Gold," and "October: Red Lanterns"

“Maybe knowledge doesn't accrue, maybe it doesn't happen sequentially. Maybe I need to go back and read Hunger of Memory again. Maybe there's a wisdom that I had in those years that I need to learn from now. And maybe there will be a year when I will have the courage to read that book. When I think about it or when I hear other people talk about it, it strikes me as very naked prose, and I'm embarrassed by it. I'm embarrassed by how much I told you. And people say, "Well you didn't tell us you were gay." Or "You didn't tell us you had all these friends or that you were student body president. You never said that."”

Richard Rodríguez (1944) American journalist and essayist

I think to myself, "My God, but what I told you I've never told anybody. And I'll never tell anybody again."
Violating the Boundaries: An Interview with Richard Rodriguez (1999)

“It would take an hour-and-a-half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles. I think I know most of it anyway. You're talking about just getting updated on a situation”

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

Donald Trump, Holding All The Cards The Tower! The Team! The Money! The Future!
Washington Post
1984-11-15
Lois
Romano
https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/archive/lifestyle/1984/11/15/donald-trump-holding-all-the-cards-the-tower-the-team-the-money-the-future/8be79254-7793-4812-a153-f2b88e81fa54/?resType=accessibility, talking about his desire to be involved in negotiations with the then Soviet Union
1980s

“And I don't pretend to know what you know
no no
now please don't pretend to know what's on my mind
if we already knew everything that everybody knows
we would have nothing to learn tonight
and we would have nothing to show tonight
oh but everybody thinks
that everybody knows
about everybody else
nobody knows
anything about themselves
cause they're all worried about everybody else.”

Jack Johnson (musician) (1975) American musician

Wasting Time.
Song lyrics, On and On (2003)

“Is this politics? I suppose I am going to have to learn all about it, if I am to run Lord Ferris’s household, and throw parties and all. Now…explain to me again just who hates who, and why?”

Ellen Kushner book The Privilege of the Sword

Part III, Chapter III (p. 193)
The Privilege of the Sword (2006)

“One thing I learned a long time ago was my fretboard, in terms of all the scales in all the positions…You have to learn it - there are no two ways about it. I shift between positions so easily now that I really don't have to think about them much…I would suggest starting your scale education with the major and minor scales, and after that, diminished, augmented and whole-tone. Then depending on what kind of music you want to play, the modes should be learned. My theory about this kind of thing is that you should learn it all. Once you've learned it you can play whatever you want to play, and I think that your playing will be more advanced, and you'll have a better understanding of the instrument.”

Al Di Meola (1954) guitarist

[Denyer, Ralph, The Guitar Handbook, 2002, 102, 0-679-74275-1]

“You learn about life by the accidents you have, over and over again”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

Interviewed by J. Rentilly, "The Best Jokes Are Dangerous" http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2002/09/16vonnegut1.html, McSweeny's (September 2002)
Various interviews
Context: You learn about life by the accidents you have, over and over again, and your father is always in your head when that stuff happens. Writing, most of the time, for most people, is an accident and your father is there for that, too. You know, I taught writing for a while and whenever somebody would tell me they were going to write about their dad, I would tell them they might as well go write about killing puppies because neither story was going to work. It just doesn't work. Your father won't let it happen.

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Barack Obama 1158

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