Tim's Favorite Quotes, part 2

Learning

"Is it not a pleasure to learn and to repeat or practice from time to time what has been learned? . . .
A man who reviews the old so as to find out the new is qualified to teach others
. . . .
He who learns but does not think is lost; he who thinks but does not learn is in danger."
— Confucius, The Analects, translated by Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963)

drawing of Confucius, E.T.C. Werner, 1922, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15250

"I won't tell you what to believe, Eragon. It is far better to be taught to think critically and then be allowed to make your own decisions than to have someone else's notions thrust upon you."
— Christopher Paolini, Eldest, 544

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
— Shakyamuni Siddharta Gautama "Buddha", Anguttara Nikaya 3.65: Kalama Sutra 188-193

anonymous painting, Gautama's first sermon, Deer Park, at Wat Chedi Liem, CC-SA

"It often happens, that those who live at a later time are unable to grasp the point at which the great undertakings or actions of this world had their origin. And I, constantly seeking the reason for this phenomenon, could find no other answer than this, namely that all things (including those that come at last to triumph mightily) are at their beginnings so small and faint in outline that one cannot easily convince oneself that from them will grow matters of great moment."
— Matteo Ricci, Historia in Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (New York: Penguin, 1985), 267.

Ricci at Guangqi Park, Shanghai, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Matteo_Ricci_2.jpg, PD)

"If history were a science, we should be able to get a grip on her, learn her ways, establish her patterns, know what will happen tomorrow. Why is it that we cannot? The answer lies in what I call the Unknown Variable — namely, man. . . . History is the record of human behavior, the most fascinating subject of all, but illogical . . . "
— Barbara Tuchman, "Is History a Guide to the Future?", in Pacticing History (New York: Ballantine Books, 1981), 147-148.

"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
— George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1: Reason in Common Sense

Portrait of Santayana, 1936, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Santayana.jpg, PD
Image of Reason in Common Sense: http://www.archive.org/stream/thelifeofreasono00santuoft#page/n5/mode/2up, PD

revised 16 July 2010; original 11 October 2009