Quotes About Learning

On our hero's journey, we see, we experience, we suffer. We learn. On our hero's journey, we acquire a history that is ours alone. It's a secret history, a private history, a personal history. No one has it but us. No one knows it but us. This secret history is the most valuable possession we hold, or ever will hold. We will draw upon it for the rest of our lives.

The enemy is a very good teacher. — the Dalai Lama

professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.

What better way of avoiding work than going to a workshop?

That was what I did at night. I read all the stuff that you're supposed to read in college but never do, or if you do, you're not paying attention. I read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and Turgenev. I read Cervantes and Flaubert and Stendhal and Knut Hamsun, and I read every American except Faulkner.

Soak up what you need to fill in the gaps. Keep working.

The professional gives an ear to criticism, seeking to learn and grow. But she never forgets that Resistance is using criticism against her on a far more diabolical level.

I read everything you're supposed to read in high school and college but never do, or if you do, you're so psyched to read to the test that you don't learn a damn thing. Am I learning anything now? Fuck no. The books pass through my consciousness like sunlight through glass. I don't care. They're in my cells now. I love them. Their impress has etched itself in some occult recess of my heart.

The amateur hoards his knowledge and his reinforcement. He believes that if he shares what he possesses with others, he will lose it. The professional is happy to teach. He will gladly lend a hand or deliver a swift kick.

I type that. I type the whole chapter and the one after that and the one after that. Do I have a plan? Am I taking notes? I'm working mindlessly, like a chimpanzee. I want Hemingway's stuff to sink into me by osmosis.

No one is born a pro. You've got to fall before you hit bottom, and sometimes that fall can be a hell of a ride.

Remember: There's no such thing as a mistake in the kitchen, just a new recipe waiting to be discovered!)

As is natural for an academic, when I want to learn about something, I volunteer to teach a course on the subject.

The progress of science has been largely a matter of discovering what questions should be asked.

Bateson proposed that the metaphor of mother Earth is no longer accurate or helpful. Human impact on nature is now so complete and irreversible that we're better off thinking of the planet as if it were our first child. It will be here after us. Its future is unknown and uncontrollable. We are forced to plan ahead for it. Our first obligation is to keep it from harm. We are learning from it how to be decent parents.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Siempre es el fracaso lo que nos sirve de lección, no el éxito.

A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. PROVERBS 1:5

There is a lot of growing required.

Descubrí que sin Dios estamos destinados a repetir los errores de nuestro pasado y a copiar lo que hemos observado.

The realization that no matter what you do, no matter how many little mistakes you make, you are still probably going to come up with reasonably good, usable compost.

The public library is where place and possibility meet.

People have an amazing capacity to remember pictures. After being shown 10,000 photographs just once they can correctly recognize almost all of them a week later. This is in marked contrast to the very poor memory for isolated words.

We all do things we regret. It's part of growing up.