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Quotes about experience

89 quotes from 75 people

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Experience proves this, or that, or nothing, according to the preconceptions we bring to it.
C. S. Lewis1898–1963
If one is only to talk from first-hand experience, conversation would be a very poor business.
C. S. Lewis1898–1963
We do not have to live the same mistakes over again if we can look at them, learn from them, and build upon them.
Audre Lorde1934–1992Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), “Learning from the 60s”
- Failure
It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Nelson Mandela on character, Foreign Correspondent’s Association’s Annual Dinner, Johannesburg, South Africa (21 November 1997)
This taught me a lesson, but I’m not sure what it is.
John McEnroeborn 1959On losing to Tim Mayotte in the Ebel US Pro Indoor Championships, NY Times (February 9, 1987)
- Comedy
A whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
Herman Melville1819–1891Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter XXIVIn context
- Education
At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it.
Yukio Mishima1925–1970Confessions of a Mask (1949), p. 118.
The schizophrenic is probably having exactly the same experience as the magician but has no context in which to understand it.
Alan Mooreborn 1953De Abaitua interview (1998)
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices — just recognize them.
Edward R. Murrow1908–1965Television broadcast, (31 December 1955)
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.
Nasreddin1208–1284Often credited to Jim Horning
- Failure
Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn. My God do you learn.
WNWilliam Nicholsonborn 1948Often credited to C. S. Lewis
Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.
MOMary Oliver1935–2019Thirst (2006)
- Emotion
Americans learn only from catastrophe and not from experience.
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919
- America
Experience comprises illusions lost, rather than wisdom gained.
Joseph Roux1834–1905Meditations of a Parish Priest (1866), Part 4, XXVIII (1886)
- Wisdom
Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me.
Salman Rushdieborn 1947Midnight’s Children (1981)