Ali ibn Abi Talib Quotes

Learning is an active process. We learn by doing.. Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind.

Learning by doing is the only way I know how to learn.

I think education is both using and improving knowledge and that changes the whole picture.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

The knowledge of an unlearned man is living and luxuriant like a forest, but covered with mosses and lichens and for the most part inaccessible and going to waste; the knowledge of the man of science is like timber collected in yards for public works, which still supports a green sprout here and there, but even this is liable to dry rot.

It is a well known fact that a man learns best that which he endeavors to teach others.

Let the main object... to seek and to find a method of instruction, by which teachers may teach less, but learners learn more.

He that has sense knows that learning is not knowledge, but rather the art of using it.

Saying the words that come from knowledge is no sign of having it.

A man has only so much knowledge as he puts to work.

In order that knowledge be properly digested it must have been swallowed with a good appetite.

Doubt is the vestibule which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom; therefore, when we are in doubt and puzzle out the truth by our own exertions, we have gained a something that will stay by us, and which will serve us again. But, if to avoid the trouble of the search we avail ourselves of the superior information of a friend, such knowledge will not remain with us; we have not bought but borrowed it.

Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment exactly proportional to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow, when I know more, I recall that piece of knowledge and use it better.

He who learns and learns and yet does not know what he knows, is one who plows and plows yet never sows.

It is not a question how much a man knows, but what use he can make of what he knows.

Practical application is the only mordant which will set things in the memory. Study without it is gymnastics, and not work, which alone will get intellectual bread.

The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.

Learning of all kinds goes on best, lasts best, and tends to lead itself on more when it grows out of a real focus of interest in the learner.

The first class of readers may be compared to an hour-glass, their reading being as the sand; it runs in and runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind. A second class resembles a sponge, which imbibes everything, and returns it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtier. A third class is like a jelly-bag, which allows all that is pure to pass away, and retains only the refuse and dregs. The fourth class may be compared to the slave of Golconda, who, casting aside all that is worthless, preserves only the pure gems.

What is all your studying worth, all your learning, all your knowledge, if it doesn't lead to wisdom? And what's wisdom but knowing what is right, and what is the right thing to do?

I’m skeptical of passive learning. If you don’t write down what you’re hearing and learning, what the odds you remember it?

It's easier to learn many other things, if you first learn how to learn.

Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.

The key then to attaining this higher level of intelligence is to make our years of study qualitatively rich. We don't simply absorb information - we internalize it and make it our own by finding some way to put this knowledge to practical use.