quotations about learning
You live and learn. At any rate, you live.
DOUGLAS ADAMS
Mostly Harmless
Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Science Past, Science Future
Man is but a beast without it: such a glorious god is Learning.
BHARTRHARI
"The Praise of the Wise Man"
To learn gives the liveliest pleasure, not only to philosophers but to men in general.
ARISTOTLE
Poetics
A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.
ALEXANDER POPE
An Essay on Criticism
Learning makes a man fit company for himself.
LA HARPE
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
The Bridge Across Forever
A man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible; otherwise he would not try to fathom it.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Learning, though it is useful when we know how to make a right use of it, yet, considered as in our own power, and to those who trust to it without seeking a superior guidance ... it is indeed like a sword in a madman's hands, which gives him the more opportunity of hurting himself than others.
JOHN NEWTON
Cardiphonia; or, The Utterance of the Heart
That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.
DORIS LESSING
The Four-Gated City
He who studies without passion will never become anything more than a pedant.
STEFAN ZWEIG
Confusion of Feelings or Confusion
Learning makes a good man better, and an ill man worse.
JOHN GARTH
attributed, Day's Collacon
Of all evil things the least quantity is to be borne, but of learning and knowledge, the more a man hath, the better he can bear it.
BION
attributed, Day's Collacon
You live and learn. Or you don't live long.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
The important point is that learning is not a fixed process, unvarying in all learners. Not only is the human organism characterized by a remarkable plasticity (that is, a striking ability to change), but it is also characterized by a variety of ways of thinking and learning.
GUY LEFRANCOIS
Theories of Human Learning: What the Professor Said
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Quincy Adams, May 8, 1780
The wisest mind hath something yet to learn.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
Atoms of Thought
Learning is a plant that grows in all climes.
AKBAR
attributed, Day's Collacon
I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing.
TOM PETTY
Learning to Fly
He is not likely to learn who is not willing to be taught; for the learner has something to do, as well as the teacher.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms