W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Learning is not child's play; we cannot learn without pain.

Honey is sweet, "and so is knowledge, but knowledge is like the bee that made that sweet honey, you have to chase it through the pages of a book." (taken from "Thank you, Mr. Falker" )

All wish to be learned, but no one is willing to pay the price.

... studying is a preparation for knowing; it is a patient and impatient exercise on the part of someone whose intent is not to know it all at once but to struggle to meet the timing of knowledge.

Knowledge is more a matter of learning than of the exercise of absolute judgment. Learning requires time, and in time the situation dealt with, as well as the learner, undergoes change.

Being informed is different from being formed, and the first is a common substitute for the second.

As precious as knowledge itself is the learning. As precious as any reward is the earning.

Knowledge is a thing that one cannot have enough of. It is the fruit of wisdom, to be eaten carefully and digested fully, unlike that lunch you are bolting down, little friend.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.

The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.

Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.

Man is essentially ignorant, and becomes learned through acquiring knowledge.

What transforms this world is - knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is. When you look at the world with knowledge, you realize that things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed.

There is no substitute for knowledge.

The more one learns, the more he understands his ignorance.

Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding.

To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself, and enlarges the sphere of existence.

In the pursuit of knowledge, follow it wherever it is to be found; like fern, it is the produce of all climates, and like coin, its circulation is not restricted to any particular class.

Ignorance seldom vaults into knowledge.

And always, there was the magic of learning things.

To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the others.

Content if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view, The learn'd reflect on what before they knew.

As countries get rich they start increasing education and the very educated people tend to not like trial and error, because they think they're obligated to use the body of knowledge they have.

All ignorance toboggans into know and trudges up to ignorance again.