To make knowledge productive, we will have to learn to see both forest and tree. We will have to learn to connect.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
I believe that traditional wisdom is incomplete. A composer can have all the talent of Mozart and a passionate desire to succeed, but if he believes he cannot compose music, he will come to nothing. He will not try hard enough. He will give up too soon when the elusive right melody takes too long to materialize.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
The benefits of becoming fluent in a foreign tongue are as underestimated as the difficulty is overestimated. Thousands of theoretical linguists will disagree, but I know from research and personal experimentation with more than a dozen languages that (1) adults can learn languages much faster than children when constant 9-5 work is removed and that (2) it is possible to become conversationally fluent in any language in six months or less. At four hours per day, six months can be whittled down to less than three months.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Someday, in the moment of death, your whole life will pass before you. In a few fractions of a second—because time no longer applies—you will see many incidents from your life in order to learn. You will review your life with two questions in your consciousness: Could I have shown a little more courage in these moments? Could I have shown a little more love? You will see where you let fear stop you from expressing who you are, how you feel, or what you need. You will see whether you were able to expand into these moments, just a little, to show love, or whether you contracted.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
Moving along the upward spiral requires us to learn, commit, and do on increasingly higher planes. We deceive ourselves if we think that any one of these is sufficient. To keep progressing, we must learn, commit, and do—learn, commit, and do—and learn, commit, and do again.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
Warriors of the light are not perfect. Their beauty lies in accepting this fact and still desiring to grow and to learn.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
The physical symptoms of fight or flight are what the human body has learned over thousands of years to operate efficiently and at the highest level…anxiety is a cognitive interpretation of that physical response.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Too many of those with unrealized aspirations have set them aside due to fear of failure. The bigger the dream, the greater the fear. Doing less than our best allays this fear. I could have done better if I’d tried, we assure ourselves. Among the least appreciated reasons for doing superficial, second-rate work of any kind is the comfort of knowing it’s not our best that’s on the line. By not trying too hard, we avoid learning what our true potential is, and having to fulfill it. Doing our best can be deeply threatening. It forces us to consider what we’re actually capable of accomplishing. Once we learn that lesson, we can’t unlearn it. Our true potential becomes both a shining light we can follow and an oppressive burden of expectation that might, or might not, be met.
—Unknown
I had to learn to forgive myself, not to judge, but to learn from the past. They showed me how vital it is to accept, be truthful, and love myself. So I could do the same with others.
—Marlo Morgan (1937–98) American Novelist, Author
I learned that as long as I had anything in my heart or head I still felt necessary to hide, it would not work. I had to come to peace with everything.
—Marlo Morgan (1937–98) American Novelist, Author
In the depth of winter I finally learned there was inside me an invincible summer.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Success is a learnable skill. You can learn to succeed at anything. If you want to be a great golfer, you can learn how to do it. If you want to be a great piano player, you can learn how to do it. If you want to be truly happy, you can learn how to do it. If you want to be rich, you can learn how to do it. It doesn’t matter where you are right now. It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from. What matters is that you are willing to learn.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
When a man is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits … he has gained facts, learned his ignorance, is cured of the insanity of conceit, has got moderation and real skill.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Man cannot learn anything except by going from the known to the unknown.
—Claude Bernard (1813–78) French Physiologist
You can never learn less, you can only learn more.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
Those who take up any subject with an open mind, willing to learn anything that will contribute to their advancement, comfort and happiness, are wise.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
I learned I could live more than one life in a lifetime.
—Marlo Morgan (1937–98) American Novelist, Author
I learn to be content. But the doctrine of compensation is not the doctrine of indifferency.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Money is a big part of your life, and when you learn how to get your finances under control, all areas of your life will soar.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
You can drop an awful lot of excess baggage if you learn to play with life instead of fight it.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
I took his suggestion to heart and went from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all”.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Through learning we grow, becoming more than we were before, and in that sense learning is unselfish, because it results in the transformation of what we were before, a setting aside of the old self in favor of a more complex one.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Success requires persistence, the ability to not give up in the face of failure. I believe that optimistic explanatory style is the key to persistence.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
Personally, I now aim for one month of overseas relocation or high-intensity learning (tango, fighting, whatever) for every two months of work projects.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
It all comes down to this: if your subconscious “financial blueprint” is not “set’ for success, nothing you learn, nothing you know, and nothing you do will make much of a difference.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
No race can prosper ’til it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling the field, as in writing a poem.
—Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American Educationist
So much of what we know of love we learn as home.
—Unknown
To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step in knowledge.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Writing is another powerful way to sharpen the mental saw. Keeping a journal of our thoughts, experiences, insights, and learnings promotes mental clarity, exactness, and context.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
If I have an art form of leadership, it is to make as many mistakes as quickly as I can in order to learn.
—Unknown
You must always learn to see yourself as a great advancing soul.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
The hard part of loving is that one has to learn so often to let go of those we love, so they can do things, so they can grow, so they can return to us with an even richer, deeper love.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
Whether or not we have hope depends on two dimensions of our explanatory style; pervasiveness and permanence. Finding temporary and specific causes for misfortune is the art of hope: Temporary causes limit helplessness in time, and specific causes limit helplessness to the original situation. On the other hand, permanent causes produce helplessness far into the future, and universal causes spread helplessness through all your endeavors. Finding permanent and universal causes for misfortune is the practice of despair… The optimistic style of explaining good events is the opposite of that used for bad events: It’s internal rather than external. People who believe they cause good things tend to like themselves better than people who believe good things come from other people or circumstances.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
We need to teach the highly educated man that it is not a disgrace to fail and that he must analyze every failure to find its cause. He must learn how to fail intelligently, for failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Forget the pain. Learn to endure. Focus your attention elsewhere.
—Marlo Morgan (1937–98) American Novelist, Author
Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!”
—William Hutchinson Murray (1913–96) Scottish Mountaineer
Child development: Most damaging course of action is attempting to keep children from experience or protect them from pain, for it is this time that children learn that life is a magic thing, if “not a rose garden”. The parent’s role is primarily to stand by with a good supply of band-aids.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
Language learning deserves special mention. It is, bar none, the best thing you can do to hone clear thinking.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
You must learn to see the world as being produced by evolution; as a something which is evolving and becoming, not as a finished work.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Like squirrels, the best in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning their abilities – they flat out trust their skills, which is why we call this high-performance state of mind the “Trusting Mindset”.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate. Throughout its life cycle, every one of the body’s trillions of cells is driven to grow and improve its ability to use more of its innate yet untapped capacity. Research biologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, called this syntropy, which he defined as the “innate drive in living matter to perfect itself”. It turns conventional thinking upside down…As living cells—or as people—there is no staying the same. If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. And the goal of a lifetime is continued growth, not adulthood. As Rene Dubos put it, “Genius is childhood recaptured”. For this to happen, studies show that we must recapture—or prevent the loss of—such child-like traits as the ability to learn, to love, to laugh about small things, to leap, to wonder, and to explore. It’s time to rescue ourselves from our grown-up ways before it’s too late.
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
Believe me, you can have anything you want—and in abundance-when you learn to tune into the power within, an infinitely greater power than electricity, a power you have had from the beginning.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
Learn to ask, “If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?”
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
I have come to believe that there are only two kinds of experiences in life: those that stem from our Higher Self and those that have something to teach us. We recognize the first as pure joy and the latter as struggle. But they are both perfect. Each time we confront some intense difficulty, we know there is something we haven’t learned yet, and the universe is now giving us the opportunity to learn.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
I learned then that practically no one in the world is entirely bad or entirely good, and that motives are often more important than actions.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian