It is a great mistake of many ardent students that they trust too much to their books, and do not draw from their own resources—forgetting that of all sophists our own reason is that which abuses us least.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
You are to come to your study as to the table, with a sharp appetite, whereby that which you read may the better digest. He that has no stomach to his book will very hardly thrive upon it.
—Lord William Russell (1639–83) English Politician
As land is improved by sowing it with various seeds so is the mind by exercising it with different studies.
—Pliny the Younger (c.61–c.112 CE) Roman Senator, Writer
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Whatever study tends neither directly nor indirectly to make us better men and citizens is at best but a specious and ingenious sort of idleness, and the knowledge we acquire by it only a creditable kind of ignorance, nothing more.
—Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) English Politician, Philosopher
A boy will learn more true wisdom in a public school in a year than by a private education in five.—It is not from masters, but from their equals that youth learn a knowledge of the world.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
He that studies only men, will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body. He that to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads, reflection, is in the right road to knowledge, provided that in scrutinizing the hearts of others, he neglects not his own.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Concentration is my motto—first honesty, then industry, then concentration.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
When a king asked Euclid, whether he could not explain his art to him in a more compendious manner, he was answered, that there was no royal way to geometry. Other things may be seized by might, or purchased with money, but knowledge is to be gained only by study, and study to be prosecuted only in retirement.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The love of study, a passion which derives fresh vigor from enjoyment, supplies each day and hour with a perpetual source of independent and rational pleasure.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
The more we study the more we discover our ignorance.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
The mental disease of the present generation is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition to rely wholly upon unassisted genius and natural sagacity.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
If you devote your time to study, you will avoid all the irksomeness of this life, nor will you long for the approach of night, being tired of the day; nor will you be a burden to yourself, nor your society insupportable to others.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some one talent.—Yet do rot devote yourself to one branch exclusively.—Strive to get clear notions about all.—Give up no science entirely, for all science is one.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
To the man who studies to gain a thorough insight into science, books and study are merely the steps of the ladder by which he climbs to the summit; as soon as a step has been advanced he leaves it behind.—The majority of mankind, however, who study to fill their memory with facts do not use the steps of the ladder to mount upward, but take them off and lay them on their shoulders in order that they may take them along, delighting in the weight of the burden they are carrying.—They ever remain below because they carry what should carry them.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
There is no study that is not capable of delighting us after a little application to it.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
The use of a thing is only a part of its significance. To know anything thoroughly, to have the full command of it in all its appliances, we must study it on its own account, independently of any special application.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Studies teach not their own use; that is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
The man who has acquired the habit of study, though for only one hour every day in the year, and keeps to the one thing studied till it is mastered, will be startled to see the progress he has made at the end of a twelvemonth.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
I study much, and the more I study the oftener I go back to those first principles which are so simple that childhood itself can lisp them.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
As there is a partiality to opinions, which is apt to mislead the understanding, so there is also a partiality to studies, which is prejudicial to knowledge.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
As the turning of logs will make a dull fire burn, so change of studies will a dull brain.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
There is an unspeakable pleasure attending the life of a voluntary student.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Desultory studies are erased from the mind as easily as pencil marks; classified studies are retained like durable ink.
—Peter Cooper
I will study and get ready and someday my chance will come.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament is in discourse; and ability is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and, perhaps, judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels and the plots and marshalling of affairs come best from those that are learned.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
They are not the best students who are most dependent on books. What can be got out of them is at best only material; a man must build his house for himself.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all management of human affairs.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Leave a Reply