Quotes by British Authors - Page 489

The person that you feel yourself to be, according to the Sufis, is a false person, which has no true reality.
Idries Shah
He who knows himself, knows his Lord' means, among other things, that self-deception prevents knowledge.
Idries Shah
It has truly been said that 'Humility is not so much a virtue as a necessity, in order to learn.
Idries Shah
Words have to die if humans are to live.
Idries Shah
Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?
Idries Shah
All approaches to a study or an individual may start with a desire for attention. However they start, they must never end up in this manner.
Idries Shah
You have come a long way, and you do not know it. You have a long way to do, and you do know what that means.
Idries Shah
...action is in fact knowledge in operation. Right action stems from right knowledge. Right knowledge is acquired through the teacher.
Idries Shah
I am alive to a usual objection to what is clearly part of my programme for the metier of poetry. The objection is that the doctrine requires a ridiculous amount of erudition (pedantry), a claim which can be rejected by appeal to the lives of poets in any pantheon. It will even be affirmed that much learning deadens or perverts poetic sensibility. While, however, we persist in believing that a poet ought to know as much as will not encroach upon his necessary receptivity and necessary laziness, it is not desirable to confine knowledge to whatever can be put into a useful shape for examinations, drawing rooms, or the still more pretentious modes of publicity. Some can absorb knowledge, the more tardy must sweat for it. Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole British Museum. What is to be insisted upon is that the poet must develop this consciousness throughout his career. What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.
T.S Eliot
The real generosity is when a man does something generous when nobody knows about it.
Idries Shah
Progress comes through capacity to learn, and is irresistible.
Idries Shah
Advertising is far more than just a communications industry. It's a problem-solving industry that also teaches you about life, how it encourages you to focus your thinking and produce something of genuine value. Why? Because that will make the advertising task so much easier. You're not equipped with a unique set of insights and experiences across a broad range of markets, allowing you to bring clarity and inspiration to anything you wish to produce.
John Hegarty
Train your brain to gain.
Peter Rogers
She was learning something important: how to live within the sound of her own slow breathing, how to love the view when her eyes were shut.
Gwendoline Riley
The mystery of the MAGIC BATHROOM will be revealed unto thee.
Peter Rogers
The table next to the sink is for flashcards. I saw a Monty Python skit called, "every sperm is sacred," and it gave me the idea that, "every piss is sacred." Meaning, WHY NOT LOOK AT FLASHCARDS WHILE VOIDING?
Peter Rogers
Mozart liked to write letters while on the loo. He wrote, "I think it only fitting to write while shitting." This gave me the idea of, "I think it only fitting to read while ..." Who says men can't multitask?
Peter Rogers
(About the magic bathroom).If knowledge is money, and money is gold, then this is modern day Alchemy. Feces (wasted time) is turned into gold (knowledge).
Peter Rogers
They climbed the wide stairways. Their footsteps echoed and echoed through the house. "What on earth will you be doing with something so large?" said Mum."I shall live in it with my servants, of course," said Mina. "Or I shall establish a school.""A school, my lady?""Yes. A school for the writing of nonsense and the pursuit of extraordinary activities.
David Almond
Learning is not filling up a box but seeing and imagining what we can create with it.
Jill Telford
When we were little," the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, "we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle - we used to call him Tortoise -""Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?" Alice asked."We called him Tortoise because he taught us," said the Mock Turtle angrily: "really you are very dull!
Lewis Carroll
I'm gonna take all my sadness, frustration, anger and energy and channel it into becoming the best possible student.I AM GOING TO BECOME A LEARNING MACHINE.
Peter Rogers
The night before a biochemistry class, I read the last year's lecture notes. I look at the pictures in the book. Now, I've got the general concept. Sure...There's a couple of details to fill in and a a few things to memorize. But that's no big deal. I've got the big picture, and that's all I need.Bring it on professor, I'm ready.That's right.The next day, I'm a goalie sitting in the front row."Nothin gets past me."My ability to comprehend a biochemistry lecture just went from 30% to 95%. I went on to score 780 out of a possible 800 on the medical school boards exam in biochemistry. Given that the 99th percentile began around 690, this was one of the highest scores in the USA, perhaps the highest.
Peter Rogers
You have to make your own condensed notes. You learn from MAKING them. A lot of thinking goes into deciding what to include and exclude. You develop your own system of abbreviations and memory methods for the information.
Peter Rogers
Ambient sounds, especially with words, occupy about 5-10% of your intellectual bandwidth.By wearing ear protectors, you acoustically isolate yourself. This freed up bandwidth can now be focused on the desired task.It's a great deal. Just put on some earmuffs and you become 5-10% smarter.
Peter Rogers
The teacher is a catalyst to convert information from a high energy state (list of facts) to a low energy state (visual concept associated with known concepts).
Peter Rogers
Prereading is a game changer. It changed my life. Everyone is smarter when they have seen the material before. You will be too
Peter Rogers
The mystery of the MAGIC BATHROOM will be revealed unto thee...The table next to the sink is for flashcards. I say a Monty Python skit called, "Every sperm is sacred," and it gave me the idea that, "every piss is sacred." Meaning, why not look at flashcards while voiding.Mozart liked to write letters while on the loo. He wrote, "I think it only fitting to write while shitting." This gave me the idea to read while....If knowledge is money, and money is gold, then this is modern day alchemy.Feces (wasted time) is turned into gold (knowledge)...People often ask, "where do you find so much time to read? How can you remember so well?"Well, there's your answer, the Magic Bathroom.
Peter Rogers
The night before a biochemistry class, I read the lecture notes from last year. I look at the pictures in the book. I read some of the book.Now, I've got the general concept. Sure...There's a couple of details to fill in and a few things to memorize. but that's no big deal. I've got the big picture and that's all I need.Bring it on professor. I'm ready.That's right.The next day, I'm a goalie sitting in the front row.Nothin gets past me...My ability to comprehend a biochemistry lecture just went up from 30% to 95%.I went on to score 780 out of a possible 800 on the medical school biochemistry boards exam (USMLE 1). Given that the 99th percentile began around 690, this was one of the highest scores in the USA, perhaps the highest.
Peter Rogers
Prereading is a game changer. It changed my life...Everyone is smarter when they have seen the material before. You will be too.
Peter Rogers
(From chapter on Getting Started at Stanford).Go ahead, go to all your parties. Go ahead and go home to your families and friends every weekend. You are probably smarter than me. But it doesn't matter. While you are goofing around, I'm gonna be studying, and I'm gonna catch you.
Peter Rogers
Why should you go further in it? What have you to gain from it?''What, indeed? It is art for art's sake, Watson. I suppose when you doctored, you found yourself studying cases without thought of a fee?''For my education, Holmes.''Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.
Arthur Conan Doyle
Your mind will never be dull, if you remember there is never enough to learn for it to be to full.
Benny Bellamacina
Learning to fail is a virtue. Failing to learn is a sin.
Paul Sloane
No teacher has the right to cure a child of making noises on a drum. The only curing that should be practiced is the curing of unhappiness.
A.S. Neill
Well, you can fairly claim the day hasn't been wasted,' owned Cadfael generously, 'if something's been learned.
Ellis Peters
To question is to grow.
Heather Small
Learn about hornets from those who have been stung by them.
Idries Shah
A few lessons learned as a teacher: I've learned that if you whisper, children will listen...a scribble can be anything (I mean anything!) a monster, a cat, a mom, a dad--our job is to ask to find out and pay attention--usually the most challenging student needs the most challenges to keep them learning and engaged---most of all we must care and the rest handles itself. xo
Jill Telford
Saying of the ProphetInk and BloodThe ink of the learned is holier than the blood of the martyr.
Idries Shah
Will it take the rest of my life to process what has happened? I don't know.If Freddy were here, he would say, 'Yet', as per the rules of a playful accord we have concerning unacquired knowledge, whereby if one of us said they didn't know something, the other had to say 'Yet'. And then the other one--usually me--would provide the missing information, or we'd look it up, or just speculate.
Liz Jensen
Opportunity's precious, and time is a sword.
Idries Shah
Logic, like science, must be the servant and not the master of man.
Winston S. Churchill
He had existed for a long time and was fluent in many languages - most of them…dead ones.
Alan Kinross
I think it is silly to be amateur about anything when one has an opportunity of learning.
Beverley Nichols
If you keep doing it everyday as regularly as soldiers go through drill, we shall see what will happend and find out if the experiment succeeds. You learn things by saying them over and over and thinking about them until they stay in your mind for ever, and I think it will be the same with Magic. If you keep calling it to come to you and help you, it will get to be part of you and it will stay and do things.
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The world and the universe is an extremely beautiful place, and the more we understand about it the more beautiful does it appear. It is an immensely exciting experience to be born in the world, born in the universe, and look around you and realise that before you die you have the opportunity of understanding an immense amount about that world and about that universe and about life and about why we're here. We have the opportunity of understanding far, far more than any of our predecessors ever. That is such an exciting possibility, it would be such a shame to blow it and end your life not having understood what there is to understand.
Richard Dawkins
No one ever pays to learn the most important things.
Neel Burton
The mind delights in making connections.
Nicholas Boothman
We place this huge burden on answers to function as finish lines, when they more naturally perform as milestones. We fool ourselves if we believe that answers are the proper response to questions, when the formal acknowledgment of a question is to embrace its invitation to enter into the journey of learning.
Tristan Sherwin
Being a novice is safe. When you are learning how to do something, you do not have to worry about whether or not you are good at it. But when you have done something, have learned how to do it, you are not safe any more. Being an expert opens you up to judgement.
Helen Macdonald
I believe in the importance of learning from what has been discovered before. And in how precious health is, and how hard I must work to preserve it in all my Clanmates. The fact that the world of signs, omens, and dreams that have hidden meanings is closed to me doesn't feel like something is missing, Mistystar. I respect what you believe. You must respect what matters to me.
Erin Hunter
Adams has done a bit of everything, from radio to television to designing computer games. Not all of them worked out. “These are life’s little learning experiences,” he said. “You know what a learning experience is? A learning experience is one of those things that says, ‘You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.’ “At the end of all this being-determined-to-be-a-jack-of-all-trades, I think I’m better off just sitting down and putting a hundred thousand words in a cunning order.” Adams writes “slowly and painfully.” “People assume you sit in a room, looking pensive and writing great thoughts,” he said. “But you mostly sit in a room looking panic-stricken and hoping they haven’t put a guard on the door yet.
Douglas Adams
The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps.
Paula Hawkins
The future can not blame the present, just as the present cannot blame the past.
Susan Cooper
A certain elementary training in statistical method is becoming as necessary for everyone living in this world of today as reading and writing.
H.G.Wells
Farmers base their livelihoods on raising crops. But farmers do not make plants grow. They don't attach the roots, glue on the petals, or color the fruit. The plant grows itself. Farmers and gardeners provide the conditions for growth. Good farmers know what those conditions are, and bad ones don't.
Ken Robinson
I listen to the silenceand yearn to be more me,swimming in the sea of myself,learning eternally -finding out where the rocks areand smoothing them into sand.
Jay Woodman
It’s always better to accomplish something than nothing, but coming of age is about more than learning who you are inside: it’s as much about who you are in relation to others – and who you want to be
Alexia Casale
He went to work in this preparatory lesson, not unlike Morgiana in the Forty Thieves: looking into all the vessels ranged before him, one after another, to see what they contained. Say, good M’Choakumchild. When from thy boiling store, thou shalt fill each jar brim full by-and-by, dost thou think that thou wilt always kill outright the robber Fancy lurking within—or sometimes only maim him and distort him!
Charles Dickens