
Source: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
Section 32 <!-- also quoted in On Becoming a Leader (1989) by Warren G. Bennis, p. 189 -->
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
Variant: In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Context: The central task of education is to implant a will and a facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.
In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
Source: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
“Meek — as the meek that shall inherit earth,
Pure — as the pure in heart that shall see God.”
Poems (1866), Our Father's Business
Context: This, this is Thou. No idle painter's dream
Of aureoled, imaginary Christ,
Laden with attributes that make not God;
But Jesus, son of Mary; lowly, wise,
Obedient, subject unto parents, mild,
Meek — as the meek that shall inherit earth,
Pure — as the pure in heart that shall see God.
“The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights.”
Attributed
“Human beings are in this world to learn and to change themselves in learning.”
Until the Final Hour : Hitler's Last Secretary (2004) edited by Melissa Müller, Foreword, p. 3.
Context: We should listen to the voice of conscience. It does not take nearly as much courage as one might think to admit to our mistakes and learn from them. Human beings are in this world to learn and to change themselves in learning.
“The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth, One Meter Wide and Two Meters Long.”
Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XLVIII : L’Envoi or Rev. XXII: 13, p. 508
“God has not made a world which suits all; how shall a sane man expect to please all?”
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 20
El Diario del Juicio, 25 Sept 1985 (unpaginated)