The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
—H. L. Mencken, 1922
The man who is too old to learn was probably always too old to learn.
—Henry S. Haskins, 1940
***
Many much-learned men have no intelligence.
—Democritus
8
Intelligence [….] enables a man to get along without education. Education […] enables a
man to get along without the use of intelligence.
—Albert Edward Wiggam, 1924
The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce
not learned but learning people.
—Eric Hoffer, 1973
An education [is] being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you
don’t.
—William Feather, 1956
9
Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of
understanding.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906
Education is what most receive, many pass on, and few possess.
—Karl Kraus, 1976
Education is the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the ignorant by the incompetent.
—Josiah Stamp, 1933
10
Education is what survives when what had been learned has been forgotten.
—B. F. Skinner, 1964
11
Education is a method by which one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.
—Laurence J. Peter, 1977
Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people
seriously.
—G. K. Chesterton, 1907
8
As quoted, without the date, in several reputable sources, starting not later than 1907.
9
Frequently misattributed to Anatole France.
10
Frequently misattributed to John Maynard Keynes.
11
Similar and earlier statements, but about culture rather than education, are attributed to Édouard
Herriot and José Ortega y Gasset.
60
On Education, Reading, and Knowledge