Quotes on Education

… truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come…—D&C 93:24

Knowledge, which is the highest degree of the speculative faculties, consists in the perception of the truth of affirmative or negative propositions. —John Locke

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects. —Mark Twain

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. —Will Durrant

The expanding balloon of knowledge impinges on an ever-increasing area of the unknown. —Blaise Pascal

A necessary antecedent to learning is a clear understanding of ignorance. —James Clerk Maxwell (paraphrasing Socrates)

Education: that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. —Ambrose Bierce

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. —B. F. Skinner

Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world’s work, and the power to appreciate life. —Brigham Young

An educated person is one who by his or her own initiative and discipline is consciously, vigorously, and continually learning. —Eliot Butler

I hope that you will take from this university the habit of seeking knowledge and that this habit will never leave you for as long as you live. A truly educated man never ceases to learn. —Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley

… a BYU degree should educate students in how to learn, teach them that there is much still to learn, and implant in them a love of learning … —Aims of a BYU Education

… teaching means any activity that has the conscious intention of, and potential for, facilitating learning in another. … Learning is defined as stabilizing, through repeated use, certain appropriate and desirable synapses in the brain. … education is defined as learning that has been facilitated by teaching. —Robert Leamnson

I would define thinking as the operating skill with which intelligence acts upon experience. —Edward de Bono

In matters of secular learning, more important than what you learn is what you go through to learn it. —Lynn Garner

Then said a teacher, Speak to us of teaching.

And he said:

No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom, but rather of his faith and his lovingness.

If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.

And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

And even as each one of you stands alone in God’s knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.

--Kalil Gibran, The Prophet

Is This Why Students Have Little Practice Thinking?

Many a typical teen-ager today believes that all knowledge is at his fingertips, so he need not remember anything—he can always look it up. Consequently, he remembers little, so has little knowledge. Therefore, he has little to think about, so thinks little. A flood of easily-accessed information has pre-empted learning.