To learn something new is to truly live. Below are some of our favorite quotes about learning new things, the value of learning, the importance of learning, how we cannot learn in isolation, the attitudes necessary to learn new things, and more.
Importance of Learning New Things
“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer
“…The sooner you can find out whether you’re wrong, the better.” – Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden, Sense & Respond
"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." – Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Change is the end result of all true learning.” – Leo Buscaglia
“Only when we admit what we [managers] don’t know can we ever hope to learn it.” – Ed Catmull, Previous Pixar CEO
The Right Way to Learn New Things
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
“At a certain age, learning cannot be force-fed; it needs to come in response to genuinely asked questions by genuinely curious people…as Socrates taught, it is almost impossible to educate someone with an answer until he or she is investing in asking a question.” – Sen. Ben Sasse, The Vanishing American Adult
“If you give a man a fish he is hungry again in an hour. If you teach him to catch a fish you do him a good turn.” – Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“If we listen only to the voices that make us feel comfortable, or that we already agree with, how can we ever learn or grow? Learning takes wrestling…read books, watch a documentary, pursue a college or advanced degree. Listen to another news network. Learn how to listen.” – Ken Wystma, The Myth of Equality
“Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended with diligence.” – Abigail Adams
“The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to close it again on something solid.” – G. K. Chesterton
“You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way.” – Marvin Minsky
Perspectives on Learning New Things
“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” – B.B. King
“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” – Plutarch
“Shall I tell you a secret of a true scholar? It is this: Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that, I learn from him.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If you want to live a top shelf life then you need to stand on the books you have read. Never stop learning, never stop growing.” – Jim Rohn
"For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instructions fails to do this is an effort spent in vain." – Dorothy Sayers
“One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen, can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai
“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence.” – Robert Frost
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“There is divine beauty in learning…. To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps.” – Elie Wiesel
“That one line, ‘I don’t know,’ is so powerful…When I meet people and I ask them things, it is so endearing to hear ‘I don’t know.’ Because behind that is just a self-awareness and confidence that I think is increasingly rare.” – Chamath Palihapitiya
“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston Churchill
“Access to knowledge isn’t nearly as difficult as the desire to learn.” – Seth Godin
What quotes did we miss? Do you have any favorite quotes about learning new things? Download the Kwōt app on your iOS device and use our share feature to post on Instagram or Twitter and tag us at @kwotapp today!
