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The collection / 259 fragments

Learning.

Explore passages mentioning learn, learning. Topic suggestions use transparent word matching, not scholarly classification. Editorial meanings and lexical matches are discovery aids, not independent authentication of a quotation.

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259 results · Page 11 of 11Play this collection ▷
01c. 1872 AD
To learn Solitude.—O ye poor fellows in the great centres of the world's politics, ye young and talented men, who, urged on by ambition, think it your duty to propound your opinion of every event of the day,—for something is always happening,—who, by thus making a noise and raising a cloud of dust, mistake yourselves for the rolling chariot of history; who, because ye always listen, always suit the moment when ye can put in your word or two, thereby lose all real productiveness. Whatever may be your desire to accomplish great deeds, the deep silence of pregnancy never comes to you! The event of the day sweeps you along like straws before the wind whilst ye lie under the illusion that ye are chasing the event,—poor fellows! If a man wishes to act the hero on the stage he must not think of forming part of the chorus; he should not even know how the chorus is made up.
Friedrich Nietzsche / quote
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03c. 1872 AD
For whom a Court Jester is needful.—Those who are very beautiful, very good, and very powerful scarcely ever learn the full and naked truth about anything,—for in their presence we involuntarily lie a little, because we feel their influence, and in view of this influence convey a truth in the form of an adaptation (by falsifying the shades and degrees of facts, by omitting or adding details, and withholding that which is insusceptible of adaptation). If, however, in spite of all this, people of this description insist upon hearing the truth, they must keep a court jester—a being with the madman's privilege of being unable to adapt himself.
Friedrich Nietzsche / quote
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04c. 1872 AD
Utilising our Hours of Danger.—Those men and conditions whose every movement may mean danger to our possessions, honour, and life or death, and to those most dear to us, we shall naturally learn to know thoroughly. Tiberius, for instance, must have meditated much more deeply on the character and methods of government of the Emperor Augustus, and must have known far more about them than even the wisest historian. At the present day we all live, relatively speaking, in a security which is much too great to make us true psychologists: some survey their fellow-men as a hobby, others out of ennui, and others again merely from habit; but never to the extent they would do if they were told “Discern or perish!” As long as truths do not cut us to the quick we assume an attitude of contempt towards them: they still appear to us too much like the “winged dreams,” as if we could or could not have them at our discretion, as if we could likewise be aroused from these truths as from a dream!
Friedrich Nietzsche / quote
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05c. 1872 AD
The Third Eye.—What! You are still in need of the theatre! are you still so young? Be wise, and seek tragedy and comedy where they are better acted, and where the incidents are more interesting, and the actors more eager. It is indeed by no means easy to be merely a spectator in these cases—but learn! and then, amid all difficult or painful situations, you will have a little gate leading to joy and refuge, even when your passions attack you. Open your stage eye, that big third eye of yours, which looks out into the world through the other two.
Friedrich Nietzsche / quote
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06c. 1872 AD
Colour of the Passions.—Natures such as the apostle Paul, have an evil eye for the passions; they learn to know only the filthy, the distorting, and the heart-breaking in them,—their ideal aim, therefore, is the annihilation of the passions; in the divine they see complete purification from passion. The Greeks, quite otherwise than Paul and the Jews, directed their ideal aim precisely to the passions, and loved, elevated, embellished and deified them: in passion they evidently not only felt themselves happier, but also purer and diviner than otherwise.—And now the Christians? Have they wished to become Jews in this respect? Have they perhaps become Jews?
Friedrich Nietzsche / quote
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08c. 1872 AD
What one should Learn from Artists.—What means have we for making things beautiful, attractive, and desirable, when they are not so?—and I suppose they are never so in themselves! We have here something to learn from physicians, when, for example, they dilute what is bitter, or put wine and sugar into their mixing-bowl; but we have still more to learn from artists, who in fact, are continually concerned in devising such inventions and artifices. To withdraw from things until one no longer sees much of them, until one has even to see things into them, in order to see them at all—or to view them from the side, and as in a frame—or to place them so that they partly disguise themselves and only permit of perspective views—or to look at them through coloured glasses, or in the light of the sunset—or to furnish them with a surface or skin which is not fully transparent: we should learn all this from artists, and moreover be wiser than they. For this fine power of theirs usually ceases with them where art ceases and life begins; we, however, want to be the poets of our lives, and first of all in the smallest and most commonplace matters.
Friedrich Nietzsche / quote
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09c. 1872 AD
Self-control—Those moral teachers who first and foremost order man to get himself into his own power, induce thereby a curious infirmity in him—namely, a constant sensitiveness with reference to all natural strivings and inclinations, and as it were, a sort of itching. Whatever may henceforth drive him, draw him, allure or impel him, whether internally or externally—it always seems to this sensitive being as if his self-control were in danger: he is no longer at liberty to trust himself to any instinct, to any free flight, but stands constantly with defensive mien, armed against himself, with sharp distrustful eye, the eternal watcher of his stronghold, to which office he has appointed himself. Yes, he can be great in that position! But how unendurable he has now become to others, how difficult even for himself to bear, how impoverished and cut off from the finest accidents of his soul! Yea, even from all further instruction! For we must be able to lose ourselves at times, if we want to learn something of what we have not in ourselves.
Friedrich Nietzsche / quote
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10c. 1872 AD
Better Deaf than Deafened.—Formerly a person wanted to have his calling, but that no longer suffices to-day, for the market has become too large,—there has now to be bawling. The consequence is that even good throats outcry each other, and the best wares are offered for sale with hoarse voices; without market-place bawling and hoarseness there is now no longer any genius.—It is, sure enough, an evil age for the thinker: he has to learn to find his stillness betwixt two noises, and has to pretend to be deaf until he finally becomes so. As long as he has not learned this, he is in danger of perishing from impatience and headaches.
Friedrich Nietzsche / quote
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12In print by 1857 AD
On a fool’s beard the barber learns to shave.
Traditional (French-language collection) · Unknown culture / proverb

Meaning: An inexperienced worker may learn at another person’s expense when that person does not recognise the risk. The saying criticises careless practice and unequal protection rather than recommending it.

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13In print by 1857 AD
By working in the smithy one becomes a smith.
Traditional (French-language collection) · Unknown culture / proverb

Meaning: Practical skill develops through doing the relevant work. Instruction becomes more useful when paired with repeated practice, feedback and gradually more demanding tasks.

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14In print by 1857 AD
John has been to school to learn to be a fool.
Traditional (French-language collection) · Unknown culture / proverb

Meaning: Formal study does not by itself produce sound judgment. Learning becomes useful when a person examines how to apply it rather than displaying knowledge without understanding.

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15In print by 1857 AD
Youth may stray afar yet return at last.
Traditional (French-language collection) · Unknown culture / proverb

Meaning: A young person’s mistakes need not determine every later choice. Allow room for reflection and improvement while addressing the consequences of what has actually happened.

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16In print by 1857 AD
Though you are a prudent old man, do not despise counsel.
Traditional (Spanish-language collection) · Unknown culture / proverb

Meaning: Prudence and age do not remove the value of listening to counsel. The address to an experienced person keeps room for another perspective without requiring every suggestion to be followed.

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17c. 353 BC
by doing just actions we come to be just
Aristotle / quote

Editorial context: A short extract from the linked translation of Aristotle's work. It is not offered as the exact English words of an ancient Greek speaker.

Meaning: Character is a practice, not a slogan

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18c. 387 BC
the beginning is the most important part of any work
Plato / quote

Editorial context: Plato is the author of the dialogue; Socrates speaks in this passage. This is the wording of the identified translation, not an independently preserved transcript.

Meaning: Examine the ideas that form your starting point

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19Undated
the unexamined life is not worth living
Socrates · Unknown culture / quote

Editorial context: Plato is the author of the surviving dialogue. Socrates is its speaker; this is not an independently preserved verbatim transcript of the historical trial.

Meaning: Ask what your convictions can withstand

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