The better part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Experience is the teacher of jesters and the intelligence of the wise.
—German Proverb
Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
—Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) American Sportsperson
I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad.
—E. L. Doctorow (b.1931) American Writer, Editor, Academic
There is nothing so easy to learn as experience and nothing so hard to apply.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Experience increases our wisdom but doesn’t reduce our follies.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Most of the most important experiences that truly educate cannot be arranged ahead of time with any precision.
—Harold Taylor
Our experience is composed rathery of illusions that of wisdom acquired.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
Millions of items in the outward order are present to my senses which never properly enter into my experience. Why? Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind—without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Experience is a school where a man learns what a big fool he has been.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our schoolmasters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
I don’t have to have faith, I have experience.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
The way you talk about yourself and your life—your story—has a great deal to do with what shows up in your day-to-day experience. Your thoughts create filters through which you view your life. If you think of yourself as a Victim, you filter all that happens to you through the lens of DDT, and you find plenty of evidence to support that viewpoint. That’s why the orientation you adopt is so important: it exerts a powerful influence on your life direction.
—David Emerald
Pour the bulk of your time into action, not deciding. The state of indecision is a major time waster. Don’t spend more than 60 seconds in that state if you can avoid it. Make a firm, immediate decision, and move from uncertainty to certainty to action. Let the world tell you when you’re wrong, and you’ll soon build enough experience to make accurate, intelligent decisions.
—Steve Pavlina (b.1971) American Motivational Speaker
To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illuminate only the track it has passed.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
The ordinary affairs of a nation offer little difficulty to a person of any experience.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Life is like playing the violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
—Samuel Butler
Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Experience seems to most of us to lead to conclusions, but empiricism has sworn never to draw them.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
One is taught by experience to put a premium on those few people who can appreciate you for what you are.
—Gail Godwin (b.1937) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Experience is what you get looking for something else.
—Mary Pettibone Poole American Aphorist
Fooled once shame on you, fooled twice shame on me.
—U.S. Proverb
What is experience?. A poor little hut constructed from the ruins of the palace of gold and marble called our illusions
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
Deep experience is never peaceful.
—Henry James (1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer
When you realize that suffering and discomfort are the call to inquiry, you may actually begin to look forward to uncomfortable feelings. You may even experience them as friends coming to show you what you have not yet investigated thoroughly enough.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
—Chinese Proverb
Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
Religious experiences which are as real as life to some may be incomprehensible to others.
—William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American Judge
For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks, disappointments and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
The great thing about experience is that you can’t borrow it, buy it or steal it, you must earn it.
—Unknown
Experience fails to teach where there is no desire to learn.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience!
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The notion of a universality of human experience is a confidence trick and the notion of a universality of female experience is a clever confidence trick.
—Angela Carter (1940–92) English Novelist
No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) American Novelist
Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action. We cannot learn men from books.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Experience teaches slowly and at the cost of mistakes.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
Experience is the extract of suffering.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) English Dramatist, Essayist
Ask the experienced rather than the learned.
—Arabic Proverb
Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experience and invest them in the future.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Bad experience is a school that only fools keep going to.
—Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) American Mormon Religious Leader
Even a high experience is worth nothing, when not polished and kept warm.
—Hans Taeger
You cannot acquire experience by making experiments. You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Experience, like a pale musician, holds a dulcimer of patience in his hand.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
Experience costs blood.
—Yiddish Proverb
When you realize that every stressful moment you experience is a gift that points you to your own freedom, life becomes very kind.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
In long experience I find that a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.
—Harold Macmillan (1894–1986) British Head of State