An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
- Benjamin FranklinGrowth
Growth is one of the few subjects the Stoics and modern psychologists agree on: a person is not a finished product. What shifts across the centuries is not the belief that we can change, but how comfortable that belief is made to sound. Ancient writers treat growth as a duty, almost severely — Seneca opens his letters by reproaching himself. Contemporary writing prefers the language of potential and possibility.
That difference is worth keeping in mind while reading. Quotes promising that change is easy are usually the thinnest part of the genre. The ones worth keeping admit the cost: that progress is measured in years, that ground is lost as easily as it is gained, and that discomfort is a condition rather than an obstacle. This collection holds both, and leaves the judgement of which you need today to you.
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
- ConfuciusTrue life is lived when tiny changes occur.
- Leo TolstoyAssociate with people who are likely to improve you.
- SenecaHe who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.
- ConfuciusHe who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk.
- Friedrich NietzscheEducation is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
- Nelson MandelaDifficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
- SenecaProgress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
- George Bernard ShawThe important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
- Albert EinsteinI was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.
- Marie CurieOnly the educated are free.
- EpictetusThe beginning is the most important part of the work.
- PlatoThe educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
- AristotleHe who moves not forward goes backward.
- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheEveryone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
- Leo TolstoyThe first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.
- PlatoA person learns as long as they live.
- Croatian ProverbWhile we teach, we learn.
- SenecaBecome who you are.
- Friedrich NietzscheOnce you learn to read, you will be forever free.
- Frederick DouglassWithout toil there is no learning.
- Croatian ProverbIt is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
- Frederick DouglassIf you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
- EpictetusPractice makes the master.
- German ProverbI am still learning.
- MichelangeloHabit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
- Mark TwainSmooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
- African ProverbAdversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
- HoraceYesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
- RumiLearning never exhausts the mind.
- Leonardo da VinciExperience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
- Oscar WildeThe creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
- Ralph Waldo EmersonTalent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.
- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheTeachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
- Chinese ProverbYou can never be overdressed or overeducated.
- Oscar WildeWhen I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
- Lao TzuEvery artist was first an amateur.
- Ralph Waldo EmersonThe only journey is the one within.
- Rainer Maria RilkeAs long as you live, keep learning how to live.
- SenecaIf there is no struggle, there is no progress.
- Frederick DouglassBe not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.
- Chinese Proverb