Harri > Harri's Quotes

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn."

Benjamin Franklin never said those words, he was falsely attributed on a respected quotation website and it spread from there.

The quote comes from the Xunzi.

Xun Kuang was a Chinese Confucian philosopher that lived from 312-230 BC. His works were collected into a set of 32 books called the Xunzi, by Liu Xiang in about 818 AD. There are woodblock copies of these books that are almost 1100 years old.

Book 8 is titled Ruxiao ("The Teachings of the Ru"). The quotation in question comes from Chapter 11 of that book. In Chinese the quote is:

不闻不若闻之, 闻之不若见之, 见之不若知之, 知之不若行之

It is derived from this paragraph:

Not having heard something is not as good as having heard it; having heard it is not as good as having seen it; having seen it is not as good as knowing it; knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice. (From the John Knoblock translation, which is viewable in Google Books)

The first English translation of the Xunzi was done by H.H. Dubs, in 1928, one-hundred and thirty-eight years after Benjamin Franklin died.”
― Xun Kuang

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
― Albert Einstein

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
― Thomas Edison

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
― Henry Ford

“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss

“If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.”
― Dr. Seuss

“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.”
― Ken Robinson

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
― Rumi

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice."

[Stanford University commencement speech, 2005]”
― Steve Jobs

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
― Steve Jobs

“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.”
― Steve Jobs

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
― Helen Keller

“People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden or, Life in the Woods

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.”
― Amelia Earhart

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
― Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat.”
― Malcolm S. Forbes

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
― Marthe Troly-Curtin, Phrynette Married

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.”
― Mark Twain

“Anyone can deal with victory. Only the mighty can bear defeat.”
― Adolf Hitler

“You can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”
― Groucho Marx

“Build a dream and the dream will build you.”
― Robert H. Schuller

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be
The candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
― Edith Wharton

“Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.”
― Dean Acheson