Quotes About Learning

The brain is not a shoebox that 'gets full,' but rather a muscle that expands its capacity with increased use. The more you know, the more you can know.

You read widely to be shaped, not so that you might be prepared to regurgitate.

Read constantly. Read the kind of stuff you wish you could write. Read until your brain creaks.

You have to have that rare combination of thick skin and a tender heart. Most writers get it backward and have a tender skin and a thick heart... Every critic, however ill-informed, represents a point of view which is likely not limited to just him... Sometimes you will disagree with your critic, but you can always gain from him.

He who walks with the wise will be wise, Scripture saith, and he who walks with the witty will eventually start to pop off himself.

Most of what is shaping you in the course of your reading you will not be able to remember. The most formative years of my life were the first five, and if those years were to be evaluated on the basis of my ability to pass a test on them, the conclusion would be that nothing important happened then, which would be false. The fact that you can't remember things doesn't mean that you haven't been shaped by them.

We test students right after they read something mostly to ensure that they have in fact read it. From this, many have drawn the erroneous conclusion that the only good that can be extracted from their reading is that which can be displayed on or measured by a test. This is wildly inaccurate. Most of the good your reading and education has done for you is not something you can recall at all.

Information can get from a professors lecture notes and into a student's notebook without passing through the mind of either.

The point of a true education is to, by the grace of God, learn how to refuse to let the soul get old.

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.' (Prov. 27:17) In a similar way that conversation sharpens a man's countenance, conversation with men throughout history sharpens a man's mind... If this is the case, and it is, then a point should be made to seek out profitable companions in a disciplined fashion throughout your life with books.

Unbelief squashes; faith teaches. Faith takes a boy aside, and tells him that this part of what he did was good, while that other part of what he did got in the way. "And this is how to do it better next time.

You read widely to be shaped, not so that you might be prepared to regurgitate. TAKEAWAY

Learn what good work is, imitate it studiously, and do that over time.

The brain is not a shoebox that "gets full," but is rather a muscle that expands its capacity with increased use. The more you know, the more you can know.

he hardly knew any facts and was thus having trouble sticking to them.

One writer has helpfully noted that education is about formation, not so much information.

The writer must know something about the world outside books—whether his or the books of the others. At the same time, he must also be thoroughly acquainted with the world inside books. Words on a page are part of real life. They cannot be substituted for the whole, but they cannot be taken from it either.

Read because you want to, not because you need to. Actually, you need to as well, but you need to want to. You also need to want to need to, but I am rapidly getting out of my depth.

your readings are the trees where your fallen leaves would come from. Mind mulch. Cognitive compost.

This is why stories like this, with great evils in them, are necessary for children to read. Kids just got here—they are still figuring things out, and stories are one of the central realities that can help them. Chesterton says somewhere that stories about dragons and knights do not teach children to fear dragons. They had dragons under the bed already. They had the fear already. The stories actually teach children that dragons can be killed. And

Education is the process of selling someone on books.

If boys don't learn, men won't know.

Be at peace with being lousy for a while. Chesterton once said that anything worth doing was worth doing badly. He was right. Only an insufferable egoist expects to be brilliant first time out.

Pace yourself in your reading. A little bit every day really adds up. If you read during sporadic reading jags, the fits and starts will not get you anywhere close to the amount of reading you will need to do. It is far better to walk a mile a day than to run five miles every other month. Make time for reading, and make a daily habit of it, even if it is a relatively small daily habit.