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Self Education Quotes

    “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)

      “I have never doubted you for a moment, I have never doubted for a moment that you are the Buddha, that you have attained the goal, the highest, which so many thousands of Brahmins and sons of Brahmins are journeying to reach. You have found the deliverance from death. It came to you from your own seeking, on your own path, through thinking, through meditation, through knowledge, through illumination. It did not come through a teaching! And—this is my thought, O Sublime One—no one is granted deliverance through a teaching! You cannot, O Venerable One, impart to anyone, tell anyone in words and through teachings what happened to you in the hour of your illumination. The Teaching of the illuminated Buddha contains a great deal, it teaches many how to live righteously, avoid evil. But there is one thing that the so clear, so venerable Teaching does not contain: it does not contain the secret of what the Sublime One himself has experienced, he alone among the hundreds of thousands. That is what I thought and realized when I heard the Teaching. That is why I am resuming my wandering—not to seek a different, better teaching, for I know that there is none; but to leave all teachings and all teachers and to reach my goal alone or die.”

      Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha (Page 32)

        “Specialization is biologically, socially and intellectually necessary. The highest reaches of education will always involve learning one thing in great depth. The great artist or scientist often achieves the heights of performance through intensive cultivation of a narrow sector of his potentialities.”

        John W. Gardner, Self-Renewal (Page 24)

          “To learn, to discover something fundamental you must have the capacity to go deeply. If you have a blunt instrument, a dull instrument, you cannot go deeply. So what we are doing is sharpening the instrument, which is the mind—the mind which has been made dull by all this justifying and condemning. You can penetrate deeply only if your mind is as sharp as a needle and as strong as a diamond.”

          J. Krishnamurti, Freedom From The Known (Page 54)

            “I do not demand your faith; I am not setting myself up as an authority. I have nothing to teach you—no new philosophy, no new system, no new path to reality; there is no path to reality any more than to truth. All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and understanding, is the most destructive, evil thing. Leaders destroy the followers and followers destroy the leaders. You have to be your own teacher and your own disciple. You have to question everything that man has accepted as valuable, as necessary.”

            J. Krishnamurti, Freedom From The Known (Page 21)

              “The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality, or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosophers or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself and that is why you must know yourself. Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self. To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.”

              J. Krishnamurti, Freedom From The Known (Page 12)

                “So it is that there is nothing to be taught, but yet there is something to be learned. There is something we may come to understand, but not if we demand that it be explained to us. There is something that may happen to us, but not if we await its coming from outside of ourselves.”

                Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 190)

                  “The most important things that each man must learn, no one else can teach him. Once he accepts this disappointment, he will be able to stop depending on the therapist, the guru who turns out to be just another struggling human being. Illusions die hard, and it is painful to yield to the insight that a grown-up can be no man’s disciple. This discovery does not mark the end of the search, but a new beginning.”

                  Sheldon B. Kopp, If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him! (Page 56)

                    “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

                    Albert Einstein, via Essentialism (Page 87)

                      “How many of us are good at spotting the feedback that’s saying, ‘Hey this is not working for you?’ How many of us make the same mistakes over and over, have been stuck in the same unproductive patterns for years, refusing to be taught by experience? How many of us are actively looking at models (as Seneca said, choosing ourselves a Cato) and being instructed by their example as we face new situations? How often are our beliefs changing, being updated to fit new information as it is provided by what we witness and undergo? Learning is so much more than what happens in books, so much than just facts and figures. It’s more than just what we seek out or want to hear. Life is a classroom. Experience is a teacher. Are we willing to be taught?”

                      Ryan Holiday

                        “You create the rich or arid landscape of your brain. If you constrict your thoughts to the same obsessions, to the tiny realm of your smartphone, that is the world the you create for yourself. What a waste of this magnificent instrument that you have inherited! But if you attempt to move in the opposite direction, you will notice the opposite dynamic—continual expansion, mental doors opening up in every direction, creative connections and new ideas flooding your brain. You will not want to stop exploring, because your exploration becomes a continuous source of pleasure for the restless energy of the human mind.”

                        Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 448)

                          “In a competition between someone who knows the most and someone who is willing to learn the most, the edge usually goes to the curious and empathic professional, not the one who is simply protecting what’s already known.”

                          Seth Godin, Blog

                            “I often hear phrases like, ‘If you don’t take action on what you learn, it’s pointless.‘ I think it’s bullshit. From late 2016 to 2020, I binged around 130 self-development books and hours of Tim Ferriss Show podcast episodes. I took direct action, maybe on 0.5% of the advice I heard. But the real change happened with my beliefs. Hearing stories, struggles, and behind-the-scenes from various people who did dope shit stretched my thinking of what’s possible.”

                            Janis Ozolins

                              “I seek neither your approval nor to influence you. So do not make up your mind as to ‘this is this’ or ‘that is that.’ I will be more than satisfied if you begin to learn to investigate everything yourself from now on.”

                              Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 2)

                                “There are a limitless number of different sciences, but without one basic science, that is, what is the meaning of life and what is good for the people, all other forms of knowledge and art become idle and harmful entertainment.”

                                Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 30)

                                  “A scholar knows many books; a well-educated person has knowledge and skills; an enlightened person understands the meaning and purpose of his life.”

                                  Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 30)

                                    “On every trip to Kya’s, Tate took school or library books, especially on marsh creatures and biology. Her progress was startling. She could read anything now, he said, and once you can read anything you can learn everything. It was up to her. ‘Nobody’s come close to filling their brains,’ he said. ‘We’re all like giraffes not using their necks to reach the higher leaves.'”

                                    Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 131)

                                      “A degree on a wall means you’re educated as much as shoes on your feet mean you’re walking. It’s a start, but hardly sufficient. Just as you can walk plenty well without shoes, you don’t need to step into a classroom to understand the basic, fundamental reality of nature and of our proper role in it.”

                                      Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 92)