Education, Knowledge, and Wisdom: Quotations for Reflection and Discussion
published 2/18/25; updated 1/31/26
photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash
by Catharine Hannay, founder of MindfulTeachers.org
Continuing the series of Quotations for Teaching Mindfulness and Compassion, here are a variety of perspectives on developing our inner wisdom and learning from each other.
Teachers, please note:
I don’t necessarily recommend giving this whole list to your students—I like to provide a lot of options so you can choose what’s most appropriate for your particular context.
I’ve included links to book titles just so you can see more information about the sources of these quotes. (I don’t accept any paid links or advertising.)
Scroll to the bottom of the post for questions that can be used for personal reflection or as prompts for discussion and writing.
Education and Learning
“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep or taste not.”
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
“In any subject, if you don’t feel that you don’t know enough, you don’t know enough.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, p. 70
“Intelligence does not mean infallibility, nor does it mean immobility. Intelligence means the ability to learn.”
Kelly Barnhill, Iron-Hearted Violet, p. 312
“I tell you and you forget. I show you and you remember. I involve you and you understand.”
Eric Butterworth
“Life among academics had taught me that a well-expressed opinion is usually better than a badly-expressed fact, at least as far as professional advancement goes.”
Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, p. 18
“To Norman D. Newell, who was, and is, in the most noble word of all human speech, my teacher.”
Stephen Jay Gould, dedication to Wonderful Life
According to the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, “an educator must teach children to come to a judgment about things on the basis of themselves, their sensibility, and their own experience. […]
We should help children [… ]to form a personal judgment which will enable them to make choices in life that suit their individual natures. […] Instead of a ‘well-filled head,’ Montaigne prefers a ‘well-made head’; rather than the quantity of knowledge, he emphasizes the quality of judgment.”
Frédéric Lenoir, Happiness: A Philosopher’s Guide
“That teachers are so often poorly paid and little appreciated is a crime against humanity.”
Alice Walker, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting for
Information, Knowledge and Wisdom
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
T.S. Eliot, The Rock
“The person who knows the most facts doesn’t always have the best judgment.”
Gretchen Rubin, Secrets of Adulthood, p. 103
“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.”
Gertrude Stein
“The ease with which we can find out information and vicariously experience the suffering of others can make us feel as if, merely by knowing something and passing it along, we are doing something, when in fact, sadly, we are not.”
Matthew Zapruder, Why Poetry, p. 97
“Influencers […] success is based on a circular argument: people accept what the influencer suggests because they are an influencer, and they are an influencer because many people have accepted what they suggest. […] One need not be an expert or even pretend to be. […] The only factor is popularity.”
Rami Kaminski, MD, The Gift of Not Belonging, p. 33
“The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds and makes of all political and social life a mass illness. Without this housecleaning we cannot begin to see. Unless we see, we cannot think.”
Thomas Merton, quoted in Keep Going by Austin Kleon, p. 43
“You who want knowledge, seek the Oneness within
There you will find the clear mirror already waiting.”
Hadewijch II, quoted in Women in Praise of the Sacred, edited by Jane Hirshfield, p. 109
“Wisdom […] causes the ears to hear
and the heart to comprehend.
[…]
I will follow in her footprints
and she will not cast me away.”
Makeda, Queen of Sheba, quoted in Women in Praise of the Sacred, edited by Jane Hirshfield, p. 13
“[He had] wise, sad eyes, which seem so often to go with a profound understanding of money.”
Margery Allingham, More Work for the Undertaker, p. 209
“He who knows nothing, loves nothing. […] But he who understands also loves, notices, sees. […] The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love. […] Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes.”
Paracelsus, quoted in The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
William James
“Be wise, because the world needs more wisdom. And if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.”
Neil Gaiman, Art Matters
Youth and Elders
“Growing old… why, in this civilization do we treat it as a disaster, valuing as we do the woman who ‘stays young’? Why stay young when adventure lies in change and growth?”
May Sarton, quoted in When Memory Speaks by Jill Ker Conway, p. 130
“Identify younger acquaintances you admire and respect. […] They have something valuable to share. […] Ask them to teach you what they know. […]
Beware the temptation to slip into the role of master. Relax into the mind of the novice.”
Twyla Tharp, Keep It Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your Life, p. 175
“Small creatures have so many quiet lessons to teach us, though I’ve often found that only children, who reside in the same type of world, are open to them.”
Nasugroq Rainey Hopson, “Lemming Lessons,” My Life: Growing Up Native in America, edited by IllumiNative, p. 5
“Babies and toddlers are always exploring, putting everything into their mouths to investigate new textures, tastes, and shapes. […]
A baby will grab at a potted plant because it looks interesting and new. If it topples over and spills out they start playing with the soil, eating it, feeling it, and pulling the remaining plant apart and sitting proudly in the center of their efforts. What has been ‘created’ may seem to be a complete mess, but it’s also an innocent and informative investigation.”
Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create, p. 12
“It’s easy to forget as an adult how huge an influence you can have on a small child’s life simply by being funny and warm and lovingly noticing.”
Katherine Rundell, acknowledgements to Impossible Creatures, p. 358
“The gold that was my hair has turned
silently to gray. Don’t pity me!
[…]
A soul’s been realized.”
Marina Tsvetaeva (tr. by Paul Graves) quoted in Women in Praise of the Sacred, edited by Jane Hirshfield
Changing Our Views
“You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.”
George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara, Act III, scene 1
“My dears, it pains me to admit these thoughts—indeed, I am sick unto my very soul to even consider that I once had them. But I did.”
Kelly Barnhill, Iron-Hearted Violet, p. 284-5
“Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.”
Alain de Botton, quoted in Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
“It's good to be wrong—not because we should hang on to our mistakes but because acknowledging error is the foundation of learning. […]
I try to use the phrase ‘Tell me where I'm wrong’ at least four or five times a day. Try it. You'll see that while insisting that you're right is gratifying, accepting that you're wrong can be transformative.”
from “Martha Beck’s 5 Best Pieces of Advice” at Oprah.com
“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on how well it can climb trees, it’ll spend its life thinking it’s stupid.”
Julie Dachez, Invisible Differences
Learning from Each Other
“I once asked a smart friend how he got smart. He said, ‘I argued with guys who were smarter. I got mowed down. That’s how I got smarter.’
Maybe you can find some smarter people who are also nice, who mow you down gently.”
John Casey, Beyond the First Draft: The Art of Fiction, p. 102
“Gravitate, as best you can, in every way you can, toward people who seem to value genuine community and can handle disagreement with equanimity. Seek out the best and fairest-minded of people whose views you disagree with. Listen to them for a time without responding. Whatever they say, think it over.”
Alan Jacobs, How to Think, p. 155
“In order to have important conversations, you will sometimes have to check your opinions at the door. […] Don’t worry; your beliefs will still be there when you’re done. […]
We say we need to talk about issues and then we proceed to shout out our own opinions with no regard to what the other side is saying. […] We must learn how to talk to one another, and, more important, listen to one another. We must learn to talk to people we disagree with.”
Celeste Headlee, We Need to Talk
“An essential part of true listening is the discipline of bracketing, the temporary giving up or setting aside one’s own prejudices, frames of reference and desires so as to experience as far as possible the speaker’s world from the inside, stepping inside his or her shoes.”
Dr. M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled, p. 127-128
“ I’m constantly on the lookout for opportunities to connect with people whose experiences, views, and lifestyle are different from my own. […]
Every time I engage someone new, I have the chance to see the world through their eyes. My life is richer, and I am more empathetic, more compassionate, and wiser person for it.”
Brian Grazer, Face to Face, p. 161-162
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
Carl Gustav Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul
“A single eye can give us up and down, and right and left, but it takes two eyes converging on an object from different angles to provide the dimension of depth.”
Huston Smith, quoted in The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith, by Phil Cousineau
“It is always an uncomfortable adjustment when the rules of the world get rewritten over the course of a conversation.”
Patricia Briggs, Winter Lost, p. 225
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
As always with personal topics, please respect your students’/clients’/trainees’ wishes about how much they choose to share with you or with the group.
What is/was your experience of education and schooling? Which teacher(s) had the most influence on you? Why?
What have you learned (or could you learn) from someone much older or much younger than yourself?
How could you embrace the idea of ‘beginner’s mind’ or ‘baby mind’ in creatively exploring the world? How is this similar and different for an adult? How might you make a ‘creative mess’ without causing any harm?
Have you ever changed your mind about an important issue? What factors led to your new viewpoint?
Have you ever tried to change someone else’s mind about an important issue? Did it work? Why do you think you were/weren’t successful in influencing them?
Related Posts
There are many more quotations and other resources on mindfulness in schools and teaching mindful communication and self-awareness here at MindfulTeachers.org, including the following posts: