“When asked what learning was the most necessary, he said, "Not to unlearn what you have learned."”
Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers
Antisthenes, 4.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 6: The Cynics
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn but to unlearn.”
Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist
“The most necessary learning is that which unlearns evil. ”
Antisthenes (-444–-365 BC) Greek philosopher
“Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn.”
Larry Niven book The Ringworld Throne
The Ringworld Throne (1996)
Antisthenes (-444–-365 BC) Greek philosopher
§ 4
From Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius
Antisthenes (-444–-365 BC) Greek philosopher
§ 7
From Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius
“The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned.”
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
“All the lessons learned, unlearned”
Stephen Spender (1909–1995) English poet and man of letters
"Fall of a City"
Selected Poems (1941)
Context: All the lessons learned, unlearned;
The young, who learned to read, now blind
Their eyes with an archaic film;
The peasant relapses to a stumbling tune
Following the donkey`s bray;
These only remember to forget. But somewhere some word presses
On the high door of a skull and in some corner
Of an irrefrangible eye
Some old man memory jumps to a child
— Spark from the days of energy.
And the child hoards it like a bitter toy.
