Words of Wisdom

~ PARENTING & EDUCATION ~

Compiled by Peter Shepherd

“Knowledge is learning something new every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day.” —Zen Proverb

“Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a nation.” —Nelson Mandela

“He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.” —Chinese Proverb

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” —William Arthur Ward

“An investment in knowledge pays the best dividends.” —Benjamin Franklin

“There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.” —James Truslow Adams

“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” —William Butler Yeats

“Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only that the cat died nobly.” —Arnold Edinborough

“Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” —Abigail Adams

“Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.” —James Dewar

“The mind is like the stomach. It is not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests.” —A.J. Nock

“The best thing parents can do for their children is to love each other.”

“If he is indeed wise, the teacher does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather he leads you to the threshold of your own mind.” —Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher regard those who think alike than those who think differently.” —Nietzsche

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.” —Confucius

“If you think that education is expensive, try ignorance.” —Derek Botz

“He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not remains a fools for life.” —Chinese proverb

“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.” —Albert Einsten

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” —Plutarch

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” —William James

“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love, but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday.”
—Kahlil Gibran

“When inquiry is suppressed by previous knowledge, or by the authority and experience of another, then learning becomes mere imitation, and imitation causes a human being to repeat what is learned without experiencing it.” —J. Krishnamurti

“Children need models rather than critics.”
—Joseph Joubert

“It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning.” —Claude Bernard

“The way to make learning a lesson a celebration, instead of a cause for regret, is to ask ... How can I put this to use today?”

“If someone feels that he has never made a mistake in his life, it only means that he has never tried anything new in his life.” —Albert Einstein

“Learning without thinking is labor lost; thinking without learning is perilous.” —Confucius

“Prejudice is the child of ignorance.” —Hazlitt

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation.” —Pearl S. Buck

“The only stupid question is one not asked.”

“We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we have stopped saying ‘It got lost,’ and say, ‘I lost it.’ “ —Sydney J. Harris

“Education is nothing more, nor less, than learning to think!” —Peter Facione

“An educated mind is useless without a focussed will and dangerous without a loving heart.” —Winfried Deijmann

“In their freedom, birds make expanding circles in the sky.
How do they learn to be free?
They fall—and by falling are given wings to fly.” —Rumi

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” —Bertrand Russell

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” —Albert Einstein

“Our vision is more obstructed by what we think we know than by our lack of knowledge.” —Kristen Stendahl

“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer injury to our self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their self-importance, learn so easily; and why older people, especially if vain or arrogant, cannot learn at all.” —Thomas Szasz

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more often likely to be foolish than sensible...” —Bertrand Russell

“It takes more courage to alter an opinion than to stick with it.”

“Comfort is found among those who agree with you; growth among those who don’t.”

“The fact that someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true. Doesn’t mean they’re lying, but it doesn’t mean it’s true.”
—Carl Sagan