telcaan’s most recent Quotables

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem.  That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily. 

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me. 

If the past cannot teach the present and the father cannot teach the son, then history need not have bothered to go on, and the world has wasted a great deal of time.

Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom.

A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials.

A book tightly shut is but a block of paper.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

Teachers open the door but you must walk through it yourself

Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it.

If you want to go fast, walk alone. If you want to go far, walk together.

One joy shatters a hundred griefs.

It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month's study of books.

Talk does not cook rice.

One generation plants the trees, and another gets the shade

I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories.

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.

Some people turn sad awfully young. No special reason, it seems, but they seem almost to be born that way. They bruise easier, tire faster, cry quicker, remember longer and, as I say, get sadder younger than anyone else in the world. I know, for I’m one of them.