“What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn.”
The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
Context: ... education should try to lessen the obstacles, diminish the friction, invigorate the energy, and should train minds to react, not at haphazard, but by choice, on the lines of force that attract their world. What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn. Throughout human history the waste of mind has been appalling, and, as this story is meant to show, society has conspired to promote it. No doubt the teacher is the worst criminal, but the world stands behind him and drags the student from his course. The moral is stentorian. Only the most energetic, the most highly fitted, and the most favored have overcome the friction or the viscosity of inertia, and these were compelled to waste three-fourths of their energy in doing it.
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Henry Adams 311
journalist, historian, academic, novelist 1838–1918Related quotes
“A man who knows how little he knows is well, a man who knows how much he knows is sick.”
The Way of Life, According to Laotzu, 1944.
“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”
“I learned a little of beauty-- enough to know that it had nothing to do with truth…”
Source: The Beautiful and Damned
“We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are.”
"The Idolatry of Politics", U.S. Jefferson Lecture speech (1986)
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 223
“Much learning shows how little mortals know;
Much wealth, how little worldlings can enjoy.”
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VI, Line 519.
