Quotes About Learning

But what if our capacity to perceive is actually decreasing because we are confronted with too much information, as the philosopher Josef Pieper once wrote?

Each of these people has had to deal with illness, death, loneliness, broken marriages, and unrealized dreams. For the most part, they have accepted physical aging gracefully, and each has some way of keeping fit. What they have not accepted is the myth that learning and growing become less possible as one ages.

That is the purpose of museums, of course. One does not go merely to collect facts and souvenirs and picture post cards, but to enlarge one's notion of all that has been, and all that is, and all that might be. In this way we begin to understand what part each of us was born to play in the marvelous tale of existence.

I will have the children read Hamlet as soon as it is practical. There are some useful cautions against eavesdropping to be gleaned from that.

Many are happy to give advice; few are happy to take it.

Lord Fredrick Ashton himself wanted to become one of her pupils!

she replied, "My lord, are you suggesting that I try to teach you to stop acting so wolfishly, just as I have taught the children?

Trained baby dodo tricks!

This is the whole purpose of museums, of course. One does not go merely to collect facts and souvenirs and picture postcards, but to enlarge one's notion of all that has been, and all that is, and all that might be. In this way we begin to understand what part each of us was born to play in the marvelous tale of existence.

Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter! Try again. Fail again. Fail better! Understand? Good. Play.

When you solve one problem, you will see ten more.

I've been making sushi for 38 years, and I'm still learning. You have to consider the size and color of the ingredients, how much salt and vinegar to use and how the seasons affect the fattiness of the fish.

Drum lest mit Maß, doch lest genug, Dann wird's euch wohl ergehen. Bloß Bücher fressen macht nicht klug. Man muss sie auch verstehen.

Have you heard," he said "that many of our people believe if you know five colloquial expressions in their tribal language, they must always provide you with nourishment and shelter? But-" He paused as though to make sure she was paying attention. "But if you know fewer than five, they owe you not even a sip of water." She nodded, understanding his point, but he pressed it. "Learn those five phrases, Miss Sweeney," he said.

The educated do not share a common body of information, but a common state of mind

If you call failures experiments, you can put them in your resume and claim them as achievements.

At sixty, I know little more about wisdom than I did at thirty, but I know a great deal more about folly.

If suffering brought wisdom, the dentist

Forget what hurt you but never forget what it thaught you.

Wisdom cannot prevent a fall, but may cushion it

The discipline of action, then, is concerned with learning how to properly act in the world, both toward ourselves and toward others.

Seneca actually explicitly says in his thirty-third letter to his friend Lucilius: Will I not walk in the footsteps of my predecessors? I will indeed use the ancient road—but if I find another route that is more direct and has fewer ups and downs, I will stake out that one. Those who advanced these doctrines before us are not our masters but our guides. The truth lies open to all; it has not yet been taken over. Much is left also for those yet to come.

True philosophy is a matter of a little theory and a lot of practice:

We are not becoming more educated; we are simply acquiring more knowledge. There is a fundamental difference between the two.