Proverbs:Education

Education

Better be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of misfortune.
—Plato(427-347 B.C. Greek philosopher)
As what sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
—Joseph Addison(1672-1719 British poet and essayist)
Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
—Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790 American politician and scientist)
Education has for its object the formation of character.
—Herbert Spencer(1820-1903 British philosopher)
The object of educator is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.
—Robert Hutchins(1899-1977 American educational philosopher)
You can lead a man up to the university, but you can’t make him think.
—Finley Peter Dunne(1867-1936 American humorist and writer)
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
—William Butler Yeats(1865-1939 Irish poet)
Men learn while they teach.
—Lucius Annaeus Seneca(ca. 4 B.C.-65 A.D. Roman philosopher and statesman)
And gladly would learn, and gladly teach.
—Geoffrey Chaucer(ca. 1340-1400 British poet)
Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives himself.
—Edward Gibbon(1737-1794 British historian)
One father is more than a hundred school masters.
—George Herbert(1593-1633 British priest and poet)
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
—Henry Adams(1838-1918 American historian and novelist)
Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to slave.
—Henry Peter Brougham(1778-1868 British statesman)
Only the educated are free.
—Epictetus (55-135 Greek Stoic philosopher)
Only a nation of educated people could remain free.
—Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826 the 3rd President of the United States)

Proverbs:Books and Reading

Books and Reading

Books are the ever-burning lamps of accumulated wisdom.
—Glenn Curtiss(1878-1930 American aviation pioneer and inventor)
A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit.
—John Milton(1608-1674 British poet)
The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries.
—René Descartes(1596-1650 French philosopher and mathematician)
A library is a repository of medicine for the mind.
—Francois Rabelais(ca. 1494-1553 French Renaissance humanist and writer)
Turn off the TV and read great books. They open doors in your brain.
—Richard Wolkomir(American writer)
Reading makes a full man.
—Francis Bacon(1561-1626 British philosopher and author)
I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of good books to read than a king who did not love reading.
—Thomas Macaulay(1800-1859 British poet, historian and politician)
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
—Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862 American author)
Great books are always contemporary. In contrast, the books we call “contemporary”, because they are currently popular, last only for a year or two, or ten at the most.
—Mortimer Jerome Adler(1902-2001 American educator)
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
—Francis Bacon(1561-1626 British philosopher and author)
I wonder whether what we are publishing now is worth cutting down trees to make paper for the stuff.
—Richard Brautigan(1935-1984 American novelist and poet)
Every man is a volume if you know how to read him.
—English proverb
The world is a beautiful book, but of little use to him who cannot read.
—Carlo Goldoni(1707-1793 Italian playwright)
Books are for use, not for show.
—William Lyon Phelps(1865-1934 American educator)
Laws die, books never.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton(1831-1891 British politician and poet)

Proverbs:Learning

Learning

It is not shame for a man to learn that which he knows not, whatever his age.
—Socrates(ca. 470-399 B.C. Greek philosopher)
All men naturally desire to know.
—Aristotle(384-322 B.C. Greek philosopher)
Never too old to learn.
—Thomas Middleton(ca. 1570-1627 British playwright)
By the street of “By and By” one arrives at the house of “Never”.
—English proverb
You can learn from everyone.
—Derek Bok(1930- former president of Harvard University)
Live to learn, not learn to live.
—Francis Bacon(1561-1626 British philosopher and author)
The years teach much which the days never know.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson(1830-1882 American essayist and poet)
The more we study the more we discover our ignorance.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822 British poet)
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
—Edmund Burke(1729-1797 British statesman and orator)
He who nothing questions, nothing learns.
—Sthephen Gosson(1554-1624 British writer)
He that sips of many arts, drinks none.
—Thomas Fuller(1608-1661 British churchman)
Fools learn nothing from wise men, but wise men learn much from fools.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater(1741-1801 Swiss poet)
Learning makes a good man better and ill man worse.
—Thomas Fuller(1608-1661 British churchman)
Intellect without morality is, so to speak, a tiger with a sword.
—Orison Marden(1848-1924 American spiritual author)
Histories make men wise; poems witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.
—Francis Bacon(1561-1626 British philosopher and author)

The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

“Good luck old man.”
“Good luck,” the old man said. He fitted the rope lashings of the oars onto the thole pins and, leaning forward against the thrust of the blades in the water, he began to row out of the harbour in the dark. There were other boats from the other beaches going out to sea and the old man heard the dip and push of their oars even though he could not see them now the moon was below the hills.

Sometimes someone would speak in a boat. But most of the boats were silent except for the dip of the oars. They spread apart after they were out of the mouth of the harbour and each one headed for the part of the ocean where he hoped to find fish. The old man knew he was going far out and he left the smell of the land behind and rowed out into the clean early morning smell of the ocean…

In the dark the old man could feel the morning coming and as he rowed he heard the trembling sound as flying fish left the water and the hissing that their stiff set wings made as they soared away in the darkness. He was very fond of flying fish as they were his principal friends on the ocean. He was sorry for the birds, especially the small delicate dark terns that were always flying and looking and almost never finding, and he thought, the birds have a harder life than we do except for the robber birds and the heavy strong ones. Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea.

I Believe

I Believe
by Albert Einstein (1899-1955)

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.

From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men — above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labours of my fellow – men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.

I do not believe we can have any freedom at all in the philosophical sense, for we act not only under external compulsion but also by inner necessity. Schopenhauer’s saying — ‘A man can surely do what he wills to do, but he cannot determine what he wills’ — impressed itself upon me in youth and has always consoled me when I have witnessed or suffered life’s hardships. This conviction is a perpetual breeder of tolerance, for it does not allow us to take ourselves or others too seriously; it makes rather for a sense of humour.

To ponder interminably over the reason for one’s own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly. And yet everyone holds certain ideals by which he guides his aspiration and his judgment. The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle…

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling, is at the centre of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men.

Idioms:Culture

Culture

Love me, love my dog.
Business is business. /Call a spade a spade.
Being on sea, sail; being on land, settle.
Feather by feather the goose is plucked.
Still waters run deep.
Two heads are better than one. /Four eyes see more than two.
Between you and me.
Each bird loves to hear himself sing.
Virtue and happiness are mother and daughter.
Good wine needs no bush. /A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Beam with joy. /Spring in the air.
All’s grist that comes to the mill.
Short and sweet.
Give the devil his due.
Charity begins at home.

Idioms:Appraisement

Appraisement

Measure for measure. /Give tit for tat.
A miss is as good as a mile. /A little too late is much too late.
Have an eye to the main chance.
The eye is the mirror of the soul.
Call no man great before he is dead.
There are two sides to every story.
Better be alone than in bad company.
Build castles in the air. /Show him an egg, and instantly the whole air is full of feathers.
There is life in a mussel, though it be little.
Wise men learn by other men’s mistakes.
All roads lead to Rome.
The worth of a thing is best known by the want of it.
Old bees yield no honey. /The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
What millions died that Caesar might be great.
Every Jack has his Jill.

Idioms:Description

Description

It’s raining cats and dogs.
Wave after wave. /It never rains but it pours.
Cut to the quick.
A home from home. /Feel at home.
Know what’s what.
Talk of the devil and he will appear. /Speak of the angels, and you will hear their wings.
Give one a mouthful of moonshine.
Burn the candle at both ends.
Pat oneself on the back. /Hug oneself.
Reach the top of the ladder. /Reach the limit.
An old ox makes a straight furrow.
Today a man, tomorrow a mouse.
It came absolutely out of the blue.
Whether the pitcher strikes the stone, or the stone strikes the pitcher, it is bad for the pitcher.
Life is but a dream.

Idioms:Cause

Cause

He that is born to be hanged shall never be drowned.
Out of nothing comes nothing.
For want of a nail, the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe, the horse is lost; and for want of a horse, the rider is lost.
The tree falls not at the first stroke.
The hand that gives gathers.
Experience must be bought.
Every sin brings its punishment with it.
Things present are judged by things past.
A straw will show which way the wind blows.
A baker’s wife may bite of a bun, a brewer’s wife may drink of a tun.
He who would climb the ladder must begin at the bottom.
Habit is a second nature.
Lose in hake but gain in herring.
Keep a thing seven years and you will find a use for it.
Prevention is better than cure.

Idioms:Contrast

Contrast

Diamond cut diamond.
The moon is not seen where the sun shines.
He that would the daughter win, must with the mother first begin.
The pot calls the kettle black. /One ass nicknames another “Long-ears”.
A bad workman quarrels with his tools.
Like draws to like. /Birds of a feather flock together.
Scratch a person where he itches. /A drop of honey catches more flies than a hogshead of vinegar.
Overdone is worse than undone.
When I did well, I heard it never; when I did ill, I heard it ever.
Many a little makes a mickle. /Penny and penny laid up will be many.
Say well is good, but do well is better.
If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain.
East, west, home’s best.
Go through fire and water.
Carry fire in one hand and water in the other.