Taught Us Quotes

• Earth and Sky, Woods and Fields, Lakes and Rivers, the Mountain and the Sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

  John Lubbock

  Education, Teacher, Nature

  "The Use of Life" by John Lubbock, (Ch. IV), 1894.

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• If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.

  E. O. Wilson

  Passion, Desire, Ifs

  "Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge". Book by E. O. Wilson, 1998.

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• Faith isn't about logic, son," Haddek said. "Perhaps that's your problem. You cannot 'disprove' the things you study, any more than we can prove to you that the Hero will save us. We simply must believe it, and accept the things Preservation has taught us.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Believe, Hero, Son

  Brandon Sanderson (2008). “The Hero of Ages: Book Three of Mistborn”, p.623, Macmillan

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• Divorce has taught us how to sleep with friends, sleep with enemies, and then act like it's all perfectly normal in the morning.

  Elizabeth Wurtzel

  Morning, Sleep, Divorce

  Elizabeth Wurtzel (2014). “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America”, p.79, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The two men who have done the greatest harm to the world are Christ and Columbus. Christ taught us guilt and sacrifice, to live only in the other world, and Columbus discovered America and materialism.

  Anais Nin

  Sacrifice, Men, Other Worlds

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• - My instructors in science and technology have taught us about how the brain works. It's full of electrical impulses. It's like a computer. If you stimulate one part of the brain with an electrode, it... - They know nothing.

  Lois Lowry

  Technology, Brain, Computer

  Lois Lowry (2014). “The Giver Quartet Omnibus”, p.96, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste... The only redeeming factors were my comrades' incredible bravery and their devotion to each other. Marine Corps training taught us to kill efficiently and to try to survive. But it also taught us loyalty to each other - and love. That espirit de corps sustained us.

  Eugene B. Sledge

  Loyalty, War, Marine

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• Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood.

  Alice Miller

  Struggle, Acceptance, Unique

  "The Drama of the Gifted Child". Book by Alice Miller, 1979.

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• At school nobody ever taught us how to light a cigarette in a storm of rain, nor how a fire could be made with wet wood-nor that it is best to stick a bayonet in the belly because there it doesn't get jammed, as it does in the ribs.

  Erich Maria Remarque

  Rain, School, Fire

  Erich Maria Remarque (2013). “All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel”, p.65, Random House

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• He taught us the art of unqualified love. How to give it, how to accept it. Where there is that, most other pieces fall into place.

  John Grogan

  Art, Fall, Giving

  John Grogan (2012). “Marley & Me”, p.255, Hachette UK

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• Harlow would later write, "If monkeys have taught us anything, it's that you've got to learn how to love before you learn how to live.

  Jonah Lehrer

  Writing, Monkeys, How To Love

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• Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded it as a mode of warning, had claimed for it a certain ethical efficacy in the formation of character, had praised it as something that taught us what to follow and showed us what to avoid. But there was no motive power in experience. It was as little of an active cause as conscience itself. All that it really demonstrated was that our future would be the same as our past, and that the sin we had done once, and with loathing, we would do many times, and with joy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mistake, Character, Past

  Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Penny Dreadfuls: Tales of Horror: Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.719, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Elend shook his head. "We can survive this. But, the only way that will happen is if our people don't give up. They need leaders who laugh, leaders who feel that this fight can be won. So, this is what I ask of you. I don't care if you're an optimist or a pessimist—I don't care if secretly, you think we'll all be dead before the month ends. On the outside, I want to see you smiling. Do it in defiance, if you have to. If the end does come, I want this group to meet that end smiling. As the Survivor taught us.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Giving Up, Don't Give Up, Fighting

  Brandon Sanderson (2008). “The Hero of Ages: Book Three of Mistborn”, p.117, Macmillan

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• Some wars are about bombing. For the people of the Baltics, this war was about believing. In 1991, after 50 years of brutal occupation, the three Baltic countries regained their independence, peacefully and with dignity. They chose hope over hate and showed the world that even through the darkest night, there is light. Please research it. Tell someone. These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy - love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.

  Ruta Sepetys

  Country, Powerful, Hate

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• Science has taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of human dignity. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics.

  Bernard Baruch

  Lying, Evil, Atoms

  Bernard Baruch's Address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, June 14, 1946.

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• All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience, factors to which the environment and the lessons it has so far taught us must learn to bend.

  William James

  Science, Past, Lessons

  William James (2015). “Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays”, p.119, 谷月社

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• The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us: 'That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures. Belief in God is to love one's fellow men.'

  Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

  Peace, Hurt, Men

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• We are a sum total of what we have learned from all who have taught us, both great and small.

  Myles Munroe

  Taught

  Myles Munroe (2011). “Unleash Your Purpose”, p.6, Destiny Image Publishers

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• We need to look back sometimes and realize the past taught us to appreciate our future.

  Simone Elkeles

  Past, Appreciate, Needs

  Simone Elkeles (2012). “Chain Reaction”, p.229, Simon and Schuster

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• Think about Isis,” Jaz repeated. “And Sadie…there is a purpose. You taught us that. We choose to believe in Ma'at. We create order out of chaos, beauty and meaning out of ugly randomness. That's what Egypt is all about. That's why its name, its ren, has endured for millennia. Don't despair. Otherwise Chaos wins.

  Rick Riordan

  Believe, Winning, Thinking

  Rick Riordan (2013). “The Kane Chronicles: The Complete Series”, p.524, Penguin UK

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• Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

  Pema Chodron

  Life, Spiritual, Learning

  Pema Chodron (2000). “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, p.85, Shambhala Publications

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• If anything in this life is certain...if history has taught us anything, it's that you cn kill anyone.

  Mario Puzo

  Life Is, This Life, Certain

  The Godfather: Part II (motion picture) (1974). Coauthored with Francis Ford Coppola.

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• If there's one thing that a study of history has taught us, it is that things can always get worse.

  Neil Gaiman

  Study, One Thing, Ifs

  Neil Gaiman, Steven-Elliot Altman, Brian Stableford (2003). “Shadows Over Baker Street”, p.14, Del Rey

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• The honor that we pay to the Son of God, as well as that which we render to God the Father, consists of an upright course of life. This is plainly taught us by the passage, "You that boast of the Law, through breaking the Law dishonor God."...For if he who transgresses the law dishonors God by his transgression,...it is evident that he who keeps the law honors God. So the worshipper of God is he whose life is regulated by the principles and teachings of the Divine Word

  Origen

  Father, Teaching, Son

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• History has taught us over and over again that freedom is not free. When push comes to shove, the ultimate protectors of freedom and liberty are the brave men and women in our armed forces. Throughout our history, they've answered the call in bravery and sacrifice.

  Tim Pawlenty

  Sacrifice, Men, Bravery

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