Famous quotes
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“Meditation is not a process of learning how to meditate; it is the very inquiry into what is meditation. To inquire into what is meditation, the mind must free itself from what it has learnt about meditation, and the freeing of the mind from what it has learnt is the beginning of meditation.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Third Talk at Rajghat" (25 December 1955), J.Krishnamurti Online, JKO Serial No. 551225, Vol. IX, p. 192
“Humanity is like a huge organic computer. The hardware is functioning fine — reproducing more humans, creating food, learning — but the software is broken. Beliefs are our software. When the software works properly, our beliefs help us survive. Sometimes there are glitches in the software, in the form of delusions that are harmful. My job is to remove the glitches.”
Scott Adams (1957–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I learned a great deal,” said Beran. “And then I lost all heart for further learning.” Palafox’s eyes glinted. “Education is not achieved through the heart—it is a systematization of the mental processes.” “But I am something other than a mental process,” said Beran. “I am a man. I must reckon with the whole of myself.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That books do not take the place of experience, and that learning is no substitute for genius, are two kindred phenomena; their common ground is that the abstract can never take the place of the perceptive.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men of learning are those who have read the contents of books. Thinkers, geniuses, and those who have enlightened the world and furthered the race of men, are those who have made direct use of the book of the world.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By learning to yield to the loving authority... of his parents, a child learns to submit to other forms of authority which will confront him later in his life — his teachers, school principal, police, neighbors and employers.”
James Dobson (1936–2025) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Dare to Discipline discussed on Good-Natured Child Needs His Share of Parents' Attention, Focus on the Family, 11/21/2004
“I cheerfully admit that we are indebted to Christianity for some learning, and that the human mind has been developed by the discussion of the absurdities of superstition. Certainly millions and millions have had what might be called mental exercise, and their minds may have been somewhat broadened by the examination, even, of these absurdities, contradictions, and impossibilities.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books were written and annotated, systems evolved, the writings of the ancients collected, missals illuminated, the people’s belief fostered, the people’s credulity smiled upon. Here there was all, and room for everything, belief and learning, depths and simplicity, the wisdom of the Greeks and the Evangelists, black magic and white - all had their uses.”
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.”
Roger Ascham (1515–1569) said by 1569 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Schoolmaster (1570), p. 1
“Experience is indeed essential to science, but its role is different from that supposed by empiricism. It is not the source from which theories are derived. Its main use is to choose between theories that have already been guessed. That is what ‘learning from experience’ is.”
David Deutsch (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberal learning is both a safeguard against false ideas of freedom and a source of true ones.”
Alfred Whitney Griswold (1906–1963) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by John F. Kennedy in a speech at Yale University (11 June 1962).
“Learning isn’t a means to an end; it is an end in itself.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”
Abigail Adams (1744–1818) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Quincy Adams (8 May 1780)
“The job was interesting for a week, while he was learning it, mind-numbing after that.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.”
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Case of Hypochondria", Newsweek (6 July 1970)
“There are no events but thoughts and the heart's hard turning, the heart's slow learning where to love and whom. The rest is merely gossip, and tales for other times.”
Annie Dillard (1945–2026) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Holy the Firm (1977)
“The greatest gift that Oxford gives her sons is, I truly believe, a genial irreverence toward learning, and from that irreverence love may spring.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Learning difficulties are a cover for] rich parents with dumb kids...That's why 'Pinch' Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, is alleged to have dyslexia — because he's retarded.”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Ann Coulter: The blonde assassin", The Independent (August 16, 2004).
“When you write a computer program you've got to not just list things out and sort of take an algorithm and translate it into a set of instructions. But when there's a bug — and all programs have bugs — you've got to debug it. You've got to go in, change it, and then re-execute … and you iterate. And that iteration is really a very, very good approximation of learning.”
Nicholas Negroponte (born 1943) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nicholas Negroponte: A 30-year history of the future, July 2014, TED Talks (about 13:40 into 19:43 video).
“If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our antagonists. We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing...”
Pericles (494–429 BC) said by 429 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Animals only follow their natural instincts; but man, unless he has experienced the influence of learning and philosophy, is at the mercy of impulses that are worse than those of a wild beast. There is no beast more savage and dangerous than a human being who is swept along by the passions of ambition, greed, anger, envy, extravagance, and sensuality.”
Erasmus (1466–1536) first seen 1529 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: De pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis declamatio (1529), translated by Beert C. Verstraete as On Education for Children, in The Erasmus Reader (University of Toronto Press: 1990), p. 73
“A constant element of enjoyment must be mingled with our studies, so that we think of learning as a game rather than a form of drudgery, for no activity can be continued for long if it does not to some extent afford pleasure to the participant.”
Erasmus (1466–1536) first seen 1497 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Christian Northoff (1497), as translated in Collected Works of Erasmus (1974), p. 114
“Do not be guilty of possessing a library of learned books while lacking learning yourself.”
Erasmus (1466–1536) first seen 1497 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Christian Northoff (1497), as translated in Collected Works of Erasmus (1974), p. 115
“He not only overflowed with learning but stood in the slops.”
Sydney Smith (1771–1845) said by 1845 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Macaulay; reported in Hesketh Pearson, The Smith of Smiths (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1934), p. 180
“Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.”
Arthur Koestler (1905–1983) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Drinkers of Infinity: Essays 1955-1967 (1967)
“If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change. In my view, science and Buddhism share a search for the truth and for understanding reality. By learning from science about aspects of reality where its understanding may be more advanced, I believe that Buddhism enriches its own worldview.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New York Times (12 November 2005).
“He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who has imagination without learning has wings and no feet.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Such promises are only for the gulls that accept the ordinary. One who has touched excellence in his learning has no need of that kind of promise.”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, and teachers.”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea, adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it, choosing disasters triumphs challenges impossible odds, testing ourselves over and again, learning love and love and LOVE!”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...only a fraction of book learning will seep into practical life anyhow; and the more foolish the theory, the less of it.”
Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In this Bicentennial Year, we are commemorating the anniversary dates of many great events in American history. An honest reckoning, however, must include a recognition of our national mistakes as well as our national achievements. Learning from our mistakes is not pleasant, but as a great philosopher once admonished, we must do so if we want to avoid repeating them.”
Gerald Ford (1913–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christianity possesses the great advantage over Judaism of being represented as coming from the mouth of the first Teacher not as a statutory but as a moral religion, and as thus entering into the closest relation with reason so that, through reason, it was able of itself, without historical learning, to be spread at all times and among all peoples with the greatest trustworthiness.”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good and strong will. Mechanism must precede science (learning). Also in morals and religion? Too much discipline makes one narrow and kills proficiency. Politeness belongs, not to discipline, but to polish, and thus comes last.”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't know who I am / but you know, life is for learning.”
Joni Mitchell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Say, then, to whom affects learning in philosophy Knowing one thing doesn’t comprise an education Don’t forbid others what you choose to eschew For prohibition is, in religion, desecration”
Abu Nuwas (756–814) said by 814 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not having heard of it is not as good as having heard of it. Having heard of it is not as good as having seen it. Having seen it is not as good as knowing it. Knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice. Learning arrives at putting it into practice and then stops.”
Xunzi (philosopher) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As translated by Eric L. Hutton in Xunzi: The Complete Text (2024), Ch. 8 :The Achievements of the Ru
“Learning proceeds until death and only then does it stop. ... Its purpose cannot be given up for even a moment. To pursue it is to be human, to give it up to be a beast.”
Xunzi (philosopher) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2001), p. 258
“It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary... to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.”
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Teacher's Treasury of Stories for Every Occasion (1958) by Millard Dale Baughman, p. 69
“Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In my strategy, the training for killing enemies is by way of many contests, fighting for survival, discovering the meaning of life and death, learning the Way of the sword, judging the strength of attacks and understanding the Way of the "edge and ridge" of the sword.”
Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) said by 1645 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The attempts of some of our school authorities to prevent students from learning anything about Communism, for instance, are futile. Newspapers exist; correspondents report; people travel. It is quite impossible to act as though Russia did not exist, or were as inaccessible and mysterious as Mars.”
Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The grateful savants had accepted, and they were spending the rest of their lives reading fifteenth-hand opinions, taking pleasant naps, and drooling out to yawning students the anemic and wordy bookishness which they called learning.”
Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When he gets uppity about his supposed learning, I just take it on myself to remind him that God and his angels know almost as much as college professors ~ Ch. 23”
Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power.”
Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In New York the opportunities for learning, and acquiring a culture that shall not come out of the ruins, but belong to life, are probably greater than anywhere else in the world.”
Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.”
Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Stanley Kubrick at Look Magazine (2013) by Phillipe Mather, p. 46