Men learn while they teach.
—Seneca, 64 AD
You teach best what you most need to learn.
—Richard Bach, 1977
He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903
He who cannot even teach how to do, teaches how to teach.
—Anonymous
3
Any teacher that can be replaced by a machine, should be.
—Arthur C. Clarke, 1980
***
For every person who wants to teach there are approximately thirty people who don’t want
to learn - much.
—W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, 1932
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of
others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
—Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine, 1990
Educate gradually, avoiding bloodshed when possible.
—Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, 1870
Studying without a liking for it spoils the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in.
—Leonardo da Vinci
4
You can take a horse to the water, but you can’t make him drink.
—European proverb
Give neither salt nor advice, until you are asked for it.
—European proverb
He who is ashamed of asking, is ashamed of learning.
—Danish proverb
Teachers open the door, you enter yourself.
—Chinese proverb
3
I saw this natural extension of the Shaw’s maxim mentioned in print as early as in 1955, already
as a known joke. (It was used, in particular, to describe the former USSR Academy of Pedagogical
Sciences.)
4
Undated entry in one of his notebooks, as translated by J. P. Richter in 1883.
58
On Education, Reading, and Knowledge