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The University of Hard Knocks
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
- GenresSelf Help
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1917
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 31, 2023
Though I found the book interesting it was repetitive at times.
February 3, 2023
"Have you noticed that no sentence, nor a million sentences, can bound life? Have you noticed that every statement does not quite cover it? No statement, no library, can tell all about life. No success rule can alone solve the problem. You must average it all and struggle up to a higher vision." [p. x]
"Anything that goes downward will run itself. Anything that goes upward has to be pushed." [p. 8]
"The only way to rule others is to learn to rule ourself." [p. 45]
"We cannot buy a great arm. Our arm must become a great servant, and thus it becomes great. We cannot buy a great mind. Our mind must become a great servant, and thus it becomes great. We cannot buy a great character. It is earned in great moral service." [p. 50]
"Father and mother cannot buy their children education. All they can do is to buy them some tools, perhaps, and open the gate and say, 'Sic 'em, Tige!' The children must get it themselves.
"A father and mother might as well say, 'We will buy our children the strength we have earned in our arms and the wisdom we have acquired in a life of struggle.' As well expect the athlete to give them his physical development he has earned in years of exercise. As well expect the musician to give them the technic he has acquired in years of practice. As well expect the scholar to give them the ability to think he has developed in years of study. As well expect Moses to give them his spiritual understanding acquired in a long life of prayer." [p.60]
"The book and the college suffer at the hands of their friends. They say to the book and the college, 'Give us an education.' They cannot do that. You cannot get an education from the book and the college any more than you can get to New York by reading a travelers' guide. You cannot get physical education by reading a book on gymnastics. The book and the college show you the way, give you instruction and furnish you finer working tools. But the real education is the journey you make, the strength you develop, the service you perform with these instruments and tools." [pp. 64-65]
"Get the best tools you can. But remember diplomas, degrees are not an education, they are merely preparations. When you are thru with the books, remember, you are having a commencement, not an end-ment. You will discover with the passing years that life is just one series of greater commencements. Go out with your fine equipment from your commencements into the school of service and write your education in the only book you ever can know—the book of your experience." [p. 66]
"To work at the things you love, or for those you love, is to turn work into play and duty into privilege. When we love our work, it is not work, it is life." [p.74]
"You do not know what you have memorized, you know what you have vitalized, what you have written in the book of experience." [p. 85]
"Expression is a noble art. All life is expression. But you have to get something to express." [p.101]
"Children, when you prepare your commencement oration, write about what you know best, what you have lived. If you know more about peeling potatoes than about anything else, write about 'Peeling Potatoes,' and you are most likely to hear the applause peal from that part of your audience unrelated to you." [p.102]
"Out of every thousand books published, perhaps nine hundred of them do not sell enough to pay the cost of printing them. As you study the books that do live, you note that they are the books that have been lived. Perhaps the books that fail have just as much of truth in them and they may even be better written, yet they lack the vital impulse. They come out of the author's head. The books that live must come out of his heart. They are his own life. They come surging and pulsating from the book of his experience." [p.102]
"The best part of our schooling comes not from the books, but from the men behind the books." [p.103]
"We study agriculture from books. That does not make us an agriculturist. We must take a hoe and go out and agricult. That is the knowing in the doing." [p.103]
"I used to have respect amounting to reverence for great readers and book men. I used to know a man who could tell in what book almost anything you could think of was discussed, and perhaps the page. He was a walking library index. I thought him a most wonderful man. Indeed, in my childhood I thought he was the greatest man in the world.
"He was a remarkable man—a great reader and with a memory that retained it all. That man could recite chapters and volumes. He could give you almost any date. He could finish almost any quotation. His conversation was largely made up of classical quotations.
"But he was one of the most helpless men I have ever seen in practical life. He seemed to be unable to think and reason for himself. He could quote a page of John Locke, but somehow the page didn't supply the one sentence needed for the occasion. The man was a misfit on earth. He was liable to put the gravy in his coffee and the gasoline in the fire. He seemed never to have digested any of the things in his memory. Since I have grown up I always think of that man as an intellectual cold storage plant.
"The greatest book is the textbook of the University of Hard Knocks, the Book of Human Experience the 'sermons in stones' and the 'books in running brooks.' Most fortunate is he who has learned to read understandingly from it.
"Note the sweeping, positive statements of the young person.
"Note the cautious, specific statements of the person who has lived long in this world.
"Our education is our progress from the sweeping, positive, wholesale statements we have not proved, to the cautious, specific statements we have proved." [p. 107-109]
"It takes less wisdom to make money, than it does to intelligently handle it afterwards." [p.116]
"Do you note that people grow more in lean years than in fat years? Crop failures and business stringencies are not calamities, but blessings in disguise. People go to the devil with full pockets; they turn to God when hunger hits them. 'Is not this Babylon that I have builded?' says the Belshazzar of material prosperity as he drinks to his gods. Then must come the Needful and Needless Knocks handwriting upon the wall to save him.
"You have to shoot many men's eyes out before they can see. You have to crack their heads before they can think, knock them down before they can stand, break their hearts before they can sing, and bankrupt them before they can be rich." [p.160]
"Do you remember that they had to lock John Bunyan in Bedford jail before he would write his immortal 'Pilgrim's Progress'? It may be that some of us will have to go to jail to do our best work.
"Do you remember that one musician became deaf before he wrote music the world will always hear? Do you remember that one author became blind before writing 'Paradise Lost' the world will always read?" [pp.160-61]
This was a hilarious bit of old man talk:
"The world is trying to find happiness in being amused. The world is amusement-mad. Vacations, Coca Cola and moviemania! What a sad, empty lot of rattlers! Look over the bills of the movies, look over the newsstands and see a picture of the popular mind, for these places keep just what the people want to buy. What a lot of mental frog-pond and moral slum our boys and girls wade thru! There are ten literary drunkards to one alcoholic drunkard. There are a hundred amusement drunkards to one victim of strong drink. And all just as hard to cure. We have to have amusement, but if we fill our lives with nothing but amusement, we never grow. We go thru our lives babies with new rattleboxes and 'sugar-tits.'" [p. 74]
"Anything that goes downward will run itself. Anything that goes upward has to be pushed." [p. 8]
"The only way to rule others is to learn to rule ourself." [p. 45]
"We cannot buy a great arm. Our arm must become a great servant, and thus it becomes great. We cannot buy a great mind. Our mind must become a great servant, and thus it becomes great. We cannot buy a great character. It is earned in great moral service." [p. 50]
"Father and mother cannot buy their children education. All they can do is to buy them some tools, perhaps, and open the gate and say, 'Sic 'em, Tige!' The children must get it themselves.
"A father and mother might as well say, 'We will buy our children the strength we have earned in our arms and the wisdom we have acquired in a life of struggle.' As well expect the athlete to give them his physical development he has earned in years of exercise. As well expect the musician to give them the technic he has acquired in years of practice. As well expect the scholar to give them the ability to think he has developed in years of study. As well expect Moses to give them his spiritual understanding acquired in a long life of prayer." [p.60]
"The book and the college suffer at the hands of their friends. They say to the book and the college, 'Give us an education.' They cannot do that. You cannot get an education from the book and the college any more than you can get to New York by reading a travelers' guide. You cannot get physical education by reading a book on gymnastics. The book and the college show you the way, give you instruction and furnish you finer working tools. But the real education is the journey you make, the strength you develop, the service you perform with these instruments and tools." [pp. 64-65]
"Get the best tools you can. But remember diplomas, degrees are not an education, they are merely preparations. When you are thru with the books, remember, you are having a commencement, not an end-ment. You will discover with the passing years that life is just one series of greater commencements. Go out with your fine equipment from your commencements into the school of service and write your education in the only book you ever can know—the book of your experience." [p. 66]
"To work at the things you love, or for those you love, is to turn work into play and duty into privilege. When we love our work, it is not work, it is life." [p.74]
"You do not know what you have memorized, you know what you have vitalized, what you have written in the book of experience." [p. 85]
"Expression is a noble art. All life is expression. But you have to get something to express." [p.101]
"Children, when you prepare your commencement oration, write about what you know best, what you have lived. If you know more about peeling potatoes than about anything else, write about 'Peeling Potatoes,' and you are most likely to hear the applause peal from that part of your audience unrelated to you." [p.102]
"Out of every thousand books published, perhaps nine hundred of them do not sell enough to pay the cost of printing them. As you study the books that do live, you note that they are the books that have been lived. Perhaps the books that fail have just as much of truth in them and they may even be better written, yet they lack the vital impulse. They come out of the author's head. The books that live must come out of his heart. They are his own life. They come surging and pulsating from the book of his experience." [p.102]
"The best part of our schooling comes not from the books, but from the men behind the books." [p.103]
"We study agriculture from books. That does not make us an agriculturist. We must take a hoe and go out and agricult. That is the knowing in the doing." [p.103]
"I used to have respect amounting to reverence for great readers and book men. I used to know a man who could tell in what book almost anything you could think of was discussed, and perhaps the page. He was a walking library index. I thought him a most wonderful man. Indeed, in my childhood I thought he was the greatest man in the world.
"He was a remarkable man—a great reader and with a memory that retained it all. That man could recite chapters and volumes. He could give you almost any date. He could finish almost any quotation. His conversation was largely made up of classical quotations.
"But he was one of the most helpless men I have ever seen in practical life. He seemed to be unable to think and reason for himself. He could quote a page of John Locke, but somehow the page didn't supply the one sentence needed for the occasion. The man was a misfit on earth. He was liable to put the gravy in his coffee and the gasoline in the fire. He seemed never to have digested any of the things in his memory. Since I have grown up I always think of that man as an intellectual cold storage plant.
"The greatest book is the textbook of the University of Hard Knocks, the Book of Human Experience the 'sermons in stones' and the 'books in running brooks.' Most fortunate is he who has learned to read understandingly from it.
"Note the sweeping, positive statements of the young person.
"Note the cautious, specific statements of the person who has lived long in this world.
"Our education is our progress from the sweeping, positive, wholesale statements we have not proved, to the cautious, specific statements we have proved." [p. 107-109]
"It takes less wisdom to make money, than it does to intelligently handle it afterwards." [p.116]
"Do you note that people grow more in lean years than in fat years? Crop failures and business stringencies are not calamities, but blessings in disguise. People go to the devil with full pockets; they turn to God when hunger hits them. 'Is not this Babylon that I have builded?' says the Belshazzar of material prosperity as he drinks to his gods. Then must come the Needful and Needless Knocks handwriting upon the wall to save him.
"You have to shoot many men's eyes out before they can see. You have to crack their heads before they can think, knock them down before they can stand, break their hearts before they can sing, and bankrupt them before they can be rich." [p.160]
"Do you remember that they had to lock John Bunyan in Bedford jail before he would write his immortal 'Pilgrim's Progress'? It may be that some of us will have to go to jail to do our best work.
"Do you remember that one musician became deaf before he wrote music the world will always hear? Do you remember that one author became blind before writing 'Paradise Lost' the world will always read?" [pp.160-61]
This was a hilarious bit of old man talk:
"The world is trying to find happiness in being amused. The world is amusement-mad. Vacations, Coca Cola and moviemania! What a sad, empty lot of rattlers! Look over the bills of the movies, look over the newsstands and see a picture of the popular mind, for these places keep just what the people want to buy. What a lot of mental frog-pond and moral slum our boys and girls wade thru! There are ten literary drunkards to one alcoholic drunkard. There are a hundred amusement drunkards to one victim of strong drink. And all just as hard to cure. We have to have amusement, but if we fill our lives with nothing but amusement, we never grow. We go thru our lives babies with new rattleboxes and 'sugar-tits.'" [p. 74]
July 13, 2011
Absolutely one of the best books I have ever read. This book should be required reading for everyone in high school AND college. This one is a classic first published in 1914, so there's none of that New Age stuff in there. Just solid life-changing stories that implore you to grow upward as opposed to shaking downward. Don't let the "classic" labeling perturb you. This one is for EVERYONE.
December 29, 2021
A hand-me-down from my husband's grandmother - May Hope - a voracious reader, I didn't quite know what to expect when I began this book. However, I soon found this to be a delightful, entertaining read about life and living. Humorously written, it contained anecdotes that remind us that one of our greatest teachers in life is life itself. Non-didactic nor condemning, the author pokes fun at himself and his experiences. Parlette was part of the 20th Century's Chautauqua movement, and his homespun wisdom reminded me of the smartest man I've ever known - my grandfather (who was forced to drop out of school in the sixth grade in order to help support his family.)
Granted, this book is not for everyone, but I found it one of the best reads I've stumbled across in some time. The reader does need to keep in mind the publication date of this book (1914).
Granted, this book is not for everyone, but I found it one of the best reads I've stumbled across in some time. The reader does need to keep in mind the publication date of this book (1914).
June 4, 2019
I would recommend this book.
Three years ago, a mentor recommended I read this book. After reading it, I wish I had twenty years earlier. It seemed trite and trivial to start but the more I read, the more I identified with the tales he shared. I wouldn't say it's life changing but definitely helps with self actualization.
Three years ago, a mentor recommended I read this book. After reading it, I wish I had twenty years earlier. It seemed trite and trivial to start but the more I read, the more I identified with the tales he shared. I wouldn't say it's life changing but definitely helps with self actualization.
July 12, 2022
What a great book!
Thank you, Mr. Parlette! The old times and old timers certainly had something to teach us. This book was written a good while ago. But it speaks to us today. It needs reading more, because there are plenty of people who could benefit from it. I certainly could. And if that embarrasses me to say, well, at least I'm in good company!
Thank you, Mr. Parlette! The old times and old timers certainly had something to teach us. This book was written a good while ago. But it speaks to us today. It needs reading more, because there are plenty of people who could benefit from it. I certainly could. And if that embarrasses me to say, well, at least I'm in good company!
January 9, 2018
I read this book that belonged to my great great grandmother. Her son gave it to her for Mother’s Day in 1930.
The language is old-fashioned and it’s a little repetitive, but on the whole, a pretty good message.
The language is old-fashioned and it’s a little repetitive, but on the whole, a pretty good message.
November 18, 2019
Though it was written at the turn of the 20th century, there are so many points the author makes that are so applicable to today.
January 15, 2016
Short but worthwhile read. This is a book you can use when you need a pick me up or just a little extra motivation to make sure you are on the right track. Everyone has their "Bumps" in life, but the bumps are how we learn. Read the book a second time and you can highlight passages that you can refer to later, just as the legendary Zig Ziegler says in the forward. Good book!
January 13, 2016
I read this on my kindle app & found that it is full of advice for living & adjusting ti circumstances in Century 21 with knowledge & suggestions from early 20th Century!
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February 9, 2012One of the best books I have ever read.
January 8, 2013
most insightful read. found at in the back of an antique shop all dusted up.
February 27, 2015
Great book! Interesting life lessons presented with humor and honesty. I was especially fond of the last two chapters. Encouragement to keep on in spite of life's difficult times.
February 22, 2012
Good for more than new grads
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September 14, 2018Sooner or later you and I are to learn that Providence makes no mistakes in the bookkeeping. As we pull on the oar, so often lashed by grim necessity, every ho9nest effort is laid up at compound interest in the bank account of strength. Sooner or later the time comes when we need every ounce. Sooner or later our chariot race is on when we win the victory, strike the deciding blow, stand while those around us fall and it is won with the forearms earned in the galleys of life by pulling on the oar.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews