Experience Quotes

Don’t let any experience go to waste.

“Wisdom cannot be communicated. Wisdom that a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish. Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. We can find it, we can live it, we can be carried by it, we can work wonders with it, but we cannot utter it or teach it.”
Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha (Page 124)

“Every top executive and every analyst sitting at the center of a communications network should periodically emerge from his world of abstractions and take a long unflinching look at unprocessed reality. Every general should spend some time at the front lines; every research administrator should spend some time in the laboratory doing research of his own; every sales manager should take his sample case out periodically and call on customers; every politician should get out and ring doorbells.”
John W. Gardner, Self-Renewal (Page 79)

Quickest destroyer of new experiences.

“We can understand wisdom in three ways: first, by meditation; this is the most noble way. Secondly, by being influenced by someone or following someone; this is the easiest way. Third is the way of experience; this is the most difficult way.”
Confucius, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 185)

Stretch your mind.

“You can achieve wisdom in three ways. the first way is the way of meditation. This is the most noble way. The second way is the way of imitation. This is the easiest and least satisfying way. Thirdly, there is the way of experience. This is the most difficult way.”
Confucius, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 41)

Start from experience.

“We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us… The lives that you admire, the attitudes that seem noble to you are not the result of training at home, by a father, or by masters at school, they have sprung from beginnings of a very different order, by reaction from the influence of everything evil or commonplace that prevailed round about them. They represent a struggle and a victory.”
Marcel Proust, via The Daily Laws (Page 5)

Louise Hay Quote on Problems and How They Fix Themselves When We Fix Our Thinking

“I don’t fix problems, I fix my thinking. Then problems fix themselves.”
Louise Hay

Beyond the Quote (337/365)

Life isn’t easy—for any of us. I think we all can agree on that. If so, it can be assumed that life is hard—for all of us. Now, we can never know for sure how “hard” life is or isn’t for another person. We can only ever judge another person’s life from the outside looking in, which is an INCREDIBLY limited and superficial perspective. Of course, if someone is homeless or without basic necessities for survival, there are assumptions of “hard” that we can validly make. But, when it comes to judging the other people around us, how a person’s life appears to be and how their life actually is should never be assumed to be the same thing.

“What I had been taught all my life was not true: experience is not the best teacher! Some people learn and grow as a result of their experience; some people don’t. Everybody has some kind of experience. It’s what you do with that experience that matters.”
John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold

Beyond the Quote (305/365)

“Experience is the best teacher” works when you’re talking about touching a hot stove. I can describe to you the feeling of getting burned with conviction, give you examples, and use sound logic until I’m blue in the face—it still won’t compare to what you come to understand when you touch the hot stove. The same is true when we’re talking about swimming. I can teach you all of the best strokes, floating strategies, and swimming techniques in the field—it still won’t compare to what you learn by actually being in the water.

Good judgement comes from bad judgement remembered.

J. Cole Quote from Snow On Tha Bluff and How It’s More Effective To Treat People Like Children

“I would say it’s more effective to treat people like children
Understandin’ the time and love and patience that’s needed to grow
This change is inevitable but ain’t none of us seen this before
Therefore we just gotta learn everything as we go”
J. Cole, Snow On Tha Bluff

Beyond the Quote (186/365)

There’s no disrespect in treating people “like children” in this way. It’s actually a brilliant way to look at uniquely challenging situations. For, what’s the difference between adults and children anyway? Development and experience? Adults are obviously developmentally more mature physically, mentally, and emotionally. And beyond that, the only other real difference is experience. Adults have undergone more experiences in their lives which have had more direct effects on how they think, feel, and act. And the reason most adults make better decisions is because their “better” judgement comes from their “bad” judgement remembered. Most children are still in the “bad” judgement phase.

“Find people you admire and ask how they got where they are. Seek book recommendations. Add experience and experimentation on top of this. Put yourself in tough situations. Accept challenges. Familiarize yourself with the unfamiliar. That’s how you widen your perspective and your understanding. The wise are still because they have seen it all. They know what to expect because they’ve been through so much. They’ve made mistakes and learned from them. And so must you.”
Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 66)

Joseph Jaworski Quote on Beautiful Settings and How They Can Drive You Out Of Yourself

“Part of the magic of the experience lay in the sheer beauty of the setting: the breathtaking sight of the high mountains, the sweep of the sky, the panorama of the great valley. The beauty drives you out of the self for a moment – so that for this time, the self is not.”
Joseph Jaworski, Synchronicity

Beyond the Quote (55/365)

This is (at least in strong part) why we are so drawn to beautiful destinations. The sheer beauty of the settings that we travel to pull us out of ourselves—and for that time, the self is not. It’s an incredible escape that is so cherished because our “monkey minds” drive us crazy. I’m sure you might be able to relate. You know the feeling of being unsettled, restless, confused, indecisive? That’s the monkey mind. It’s our inner critic and the part of our mind that is most connected to the ego. The monkey mind insists on being heard, is relentlessly talkative, is constantly pointing to all of our flaws and mistakes, and contends to keep us distracted from doing any kind of deep work all of the time. It’s exhausting and it’s what makes us want a vacation so damn bad.

“One of our problems is that very few of us have developed any distinctive personal life. Everything about us seems secondhand, even our emotions. In many cases we have to rely on secondhand information in order to function. I accept the word of a physician, a scientist, a farmer, on trust. I do not like to do this. I have to because they possess vital knowledge of living of which I am ignorant. Secondhand information concerning the state of my kidneys, the effects of cholesterol, and the raising of chickens, I can live with. But when it comes to questions of meaning, purpose, and death, secondhand information will not do. I cannot survive on a secondhand faith in a secondhand God. There has to be a personal word, a unique confrontation, if I am to come alive.” ~ Alan Jones, Theologian

The purpose of life, after all…

“Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” ~ Aldous Huxley, via Awaken the Giant Within