When you first start to study a field, it seems like you have to memorize a zillion things. You don’t. What you need is to identify the core principles – generally three to twelve of them – that govern the field. The million things you thought you had to memorize are simply various combinations of the core principles.
Knowledge is not free. You have to pay attention.
The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.
I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.
Experience is the hardest kind of teacher.
It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward.
“Can you imagine a smart guy with a bad memory?” he asks. “When you can’t remember somebody’s name, you look stupid. Memory and smartness are integrated.”
School is learning things you don't want to know, surrounded by people you wish you didn't know, while working toward a future you don't know will ever come.
Never memorise what you can look up in a book.
What we want to bear is inversely correlated with what we need to hear in order to learn and to grow.
If you read the literature on what makes for a meaningful college experience, almost all of the literature stresses the way the student interacts with their institution: when I show up on campus on day one, how do I behave? Do I seek out the most interesting professors and take their classes? Do I willingly throw myself into the experience or do I smoke dope in my room? The variable is you, not the institution.