Jim Mattis Quotes

Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't.

I learn lessons with every interview I give.

As an undergraduate, I did maths and physics. That doesn't make me a scientist. So I try to read and understand and talk to scientists.

I think I learned a lot from reading in general - even from reading badly written books.

In any business, the more you learn, the more sympathetic you can be to other people's positions.

You have to be literate in today's world. We're not going to get away with not teaching boys to read.

You always learn lessons in business.

I consider reading to be part of my job.

Throughout my career as a lawyer, teacher and labor leader, books have remained my constant companion - stuffed into a briefcase, overflowing on my bedside table, stacked on my desk at work. Books have carried me to distant worlds, opened new doors and made me feel empathy, compassion, anger, fear, joy, acceptance - and everything in between.

I love learning new things from the other actors.

I learned a lot from my career.

What is a college? An institute of learning. What is a business? An institute of learning. Life, itself, is an institute of learning.

All too often, we do smart things only after exhausting every conceivable dumb thing we could have done.

I always say that, to me, it starts with reading. This is something I tell high school kids, college kids, people trying to get into the business, that it's just so much about reading. Read, read, read. So much of everything else falls into place when you just do a ton of reading.

I have not eaten enough of the tree of knowledge, though in my profession I am obligated to feed on it regularly.

I had a friend who was the King's surgeon in England. One day I asked him what makes a great surgeon. He replied, "What distinguishes a great surgeon is his knowledge. He knows more than other surgeons. During an operation he finds something which he wasn't expecting, recognizes it and knows what to do about it." It's the same thing with advertising people. The good ones know more. How do you get to know more? By reading books about advertising. By picking the brains of people who know more than you do. From the Magic Lanterns. And from experience.

A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.

In business, experience is the big teacher.

Business wise, I have always learned valuable lessons so I don't regret any decisions I have made.

If we had had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes.

The more I read, the more I realise what I don't know.

There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.

You don't read in your own field. You read in that field when you're young, so that you can learn.

The successful business executive can handle challenges and solve problems at a remarkable clip.