Quotes About Learning

Slowing down is countercultural for many, and varying the pace to coordinate with others may seem a bit inefficient. This is a time to think about survival anxiety and experiment by testing learning anxiety. Is it possible to find a shared work pace that allows for the group to accomplish more? Is it worth it to take a time-out on a project to reflect on what worked and what did not? What may seem to be less efficient may turn out to be more effective.

The Humble Inquiry attitude does not require that humility be a major personality trait of a good inquirer. But even the most confident or arrogant among us will find ourselves humbled by the reality of being dependent on others, and by the sheer complexity of trying to figure out what is important and what is not. We can think of this as Here-and-now Humility, accepting our dependence on each for information sharing and task completion.

The answer runs counter to some important aspects of U.S. culture— we must become better at asking and do less telling in a culture that overvalues telling. It has always bothered me how even ordinary conversations tend to be defined by what we tell rather than by what we ask.

Why does this not occur routinely? Don't we all know how to ask questions? Of course we think we know how to ask, but we fail to notice how often even our questions are just another form of telling—rhetorical or just testing whether what we think is right. We are biased toward telling instead of asking because we live in a pragmatic, problem-solving culture in which knowing things and telling others what we know is valued.

we must become better at asking and do less telling in a culture that overvalues telling. It

Telling puts the other person down. It implies that the other person does not already know what I am telling and that the other person ought to know it.

It is hard to convince a high-school student that he will encounter a lot of problems more difficult than those of algebra and geometry.

To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is being educated.

It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought—that is to be educated." [ Saturday Evening Post , September 27, 1958]

It is commonly said that a teacher fails if he has not been surpassed by his students. There has been no failure on our part in this regard considering how far they have gone.

Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves, as he loves us better too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill.

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

Learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.

Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.

Education is the cheap defense of nations.

The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.

Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

The man who satisfies a ceaseless intellectual curiousity probably squeezes more out of life in the long run than anyone else.

With all respect, Sahib, you have little to teach us in strength and toughness. And we do not envy you your restless spirits. Perhaps we are happier than you? But we would like our children to go to school. Of all the things you have, learning is the one we most desire for our children.

Merely fact-minded sciences make merely fact-minded people.