best quotations about
Experience |
| 82 quotes | Visits: 2,586 |
Quotations
 | Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others. — Otto von Bismarck, 1815-1898, German chancellor 29 likes |
 | Experience is merely the name men give to their mistakes. — Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer 22 likes |
 | The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected. — Robert Frost, 1874-1963, American poet 18 likes |
 | Our wisdom comes from our experience, and our experience comes from our foolishness. — Sacha Guitry, 1885-1957, French writer 14 likes |
 | Good judgment is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgment. — Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American writer 13 likes |
 | Live as if you were living for the second time and as if you had made a lot of mistakes the first time. — Victor Frankl, 1905-1997, Austrian neurologist 10 likes |
 | Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea. — Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English writer 8 likes |
 | I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship. — Louisa May Alcott, 1923-1888, American writer 7 likes |
 | Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. — Aldοus Huxley, 1894-1963, English writer 7 likes |
 | Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom. — Terry Pratchett, 1948-2015, British writer 6 likes |
 | I don’t have to have faith, I have experience. — Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987, American academic 6 likes |
 | A learning experience is one of those things that say, “You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.” — Douglas Adams, 1952-2001, British Sci-Fi writer 6 likes |
 | Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced -- even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it. — John Keats, 1795-1821, English poet 6 likes |
 | We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience. — George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish writer, Nobel 1925 5 likes |
 | Love affairs are the real only education in life. — Marlen Dietrich, 1901-1992, German-American actress 5 likes |
 | Experience is the name everyone gives to his mistakes. — Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American writer 5 likes |
 | For Prudence, is but Experience; which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto. — Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679, English philosopher 5 likes |
 | The surest way to learn is by doing it, but often, the lesson is: Don't do it! — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-2025, British cartoonist & epigrammatist 5 likes |
 | Courts and camps are the only places to learn the world in. — Lord Chesterfield, 1694-1773, English statesman & writer 4 likes |
 | It is a pity that, as we gradually gain experience, we lose our youth. — Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch painter 4 likes |
| You have to start by experiencing what you want to express. — Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch painter 4 likes |
 | Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play. — Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804, German philosopher 4 likes |
 | Expert: a man who makes three correct guesses consecutively. — Laurence J Peter, 1919-1990, Canadian writer & educator 4 likes |
 | You cannot create experience. You must undergo it. — Albert Camus, 1913-1960, French writer, Nobel 1957 4 likes |
| A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience. — Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American writer 4 likes |
 | Everyone gets the experience. Some get the lesson. — T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, British poet, Nobel 1948 4 likes |
| When you prove yourself capable of one thing and you understand one subject, you can be sure to understand many more. — Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch painter 4 likes |
 | The best pilots fly more than the others; that’s why they’re the best. — Chuck Yeager, 1923-2020, American pioneer pilot 4 likes |
 | To write about life, you have to live it sometimes. What a terrible waste of time! — Altan, 1942-, Italian comics artist & satirist 4 likes |
 | By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. — Confucius, 551-479 BC, Chinese teacher & philosopher 4 likes |
 | Experience comprises illusions lost, rather than wisdom gained. — Joseph Roux, 1834-1905, French clergyman & poet 3 likes |
 | A strong and well-constituted man digests his experiences (deeds and misdeeds all included) just as he digests his meats, even when he has some tough morsels to swallow. — Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher 3 likes |
| Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with. — Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English writer 3 likes |
 | We want Realism's wealth of experience and Symbolism's depth of feeling. All art is a problem of balance between two opposites. — Cesare Pavese, 1908-1950, Italian writer 3 likes |
 | Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes. — Francis Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940, American writer 2 likes |
 | Who are we, who is each one of us, if not a combination of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined? — Italo Calvino, 1923-1985, Italian writer 2 likes |
 | Experience is something I always think I have until I get more of it. — Bill Vaughan, 1915-1977, American journalist 1 likes |
 | I regret nothing, says arrogance; I will regret nothing, says inexperience. — Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, 1830-1916, German author of maxims 1 likes |
 | The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., 1841-1935, 1 likes |
| Experience teaches only the teachable. — Aldοus Huxley, 1894-1963, English writer 1 likes |
| Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. — Terry Pratchett, 1948-2015, British writer 1 likes |
 | Whatever your position, reach out to those who know more than you do, and have been around longer than you have. Find those people. Listen carefully. And learn. — Donald Rumsfeld, 1932-2021, American politician 1 likes |
| I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. — Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987, American academic 1 likes |
 | It is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behaviour. — Marshall McLuhan, 1911-1980, Canadian academic & media theorist 1 likes |
 | To doubt the experience is to discourage it. Let it be developed, see what is in it. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher 1 likes |
| What the soul sees and has experienced, that it knows; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher 1 likes |
 | Every experience has its element of magic. — Hermann Hesse, 1877-1962, German writer, Nobel 1946 1 likes |
 | Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. — Franklin P. Jones, 1908-1980, American columnist 1 likes |
 | There is nothing so unfortunate as a man who has never suffered. — Joseph De Maistre, 1753-1821, Savoyard diplomat & philosopher 1 likes |
 | A writer – and, I believe, generally all persons – must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. — Jorge Luis Borges, 1899-1986, Argentine writer 1 likes |
 | You tasted it. Isn’t that enough? Of what do you ever get more than a taste? That’s all we’re given in life, that’s all we’re given of life. A taste. There is no more. — Philip Roth, 1933-2018, American writer 1 likes |
| Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material. — Philip Roth, 1933-2018, American writer 1 likes |
| Why does life keep teaching me lessons I have no desire to learn? — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-2025, British cartoonist & epigrammatist 1 likes |
 | Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life. — Stefan Zweig, 1881-1942, Austrian writer 1 likes |
 | Fear is the result of a lack of confidence. A lack of confidence is the result of not knowing what you can do. A lack of knowing what you can do is caused by a lack of experience. A lack of experience is caused by a lack of doing something new. — Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955, American self-help writer 1 likes |
 | Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living. — Søren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855, Danish philosopher 1 likes |
| The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived. — Søren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855, Danish philosopher 1 likes |
| We're all stumbling in the dark, and that makes for some pretty interesting collisions. — Marty Rubin, 1930-1994, Canadian gay activist, author & journalist 1 likes |
| It's not the wound that teaches, but the healing. — Marty Rubin, 1930-1994, Canadian gay activist, author & journalist 1 likes |
 | We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. — Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012, American sci-fi writer 1 likes |
 | The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. — Frank Herbert, 1920-1986, American sci-fi writer 1 likes |
 | If things were to be done twice, all would be wise. — George Herbert, 1593-1633, Welsh poet 1 likes |
 | There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea. — Joseph Conrad, 1857-1924, British-Polish writer 1 likes |
 | I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts. — Herman Melville, 1819-1891, American writer 1 likes |
 | Mistakes - call them unexpected learning experiences. — Richard Bach, 1936-, American writer 1 likes |
 | You have to die a few times before you can really live. — Charles Bukowski, 1920-1994, American writer 1 likes |
 | A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience. — Oliver W. Holmes Sr., 1809-1894, American writer 1 likes |
 | Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. — Helen Keller, 1880-1968, American writer 1 likes |
Personal Stories
 | If I had not experienced what I experienced, I would not have written this music. Music for me has never been an end in itself, it is something that I have lived. — Mikis Theodorakis, 1925-2021, Greek composer & politician 4 likes |
Latin Quotes
 | What harms, often teaches. Quod nocet, saepe docet. 157 likes |
 | Now I know what Love is. Nunc scio quid sit Amor. — Virgil, 70-19 BC, Roman poet 81 likes |
| Practice is the best teacher. Usus est magister optimus. 45 likes |
Quotes in Verse
 | The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet 3 likes |
| I have been bent and broken, but –I hope– into a better shape. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet 1 likes |
Funny Quotes
 | Sex without love is an empty experience. But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best. — Woody Allen, 1935-, American actor & film director 9 likes |
 | I've been around so long, I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin. — Oscar Levant, 1906-1972, American pianist 8 likes |
Ancient Greek
 | Learning by suffering. Πάθει μάθος. — Aeschylus, 525-456 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Agamemnon 11 likes |
| Time as he grows old teaches all things. Εκδιδάσκει πάνθ’ ο γηράσκων χρόνος. — Aeschylus, 525-456 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Prometheus Bound 8 likes |
 | The wise man understands the new things based on the old things. Ανήρ έννους τα καινά τοις πάλαι τεκμαίρεται. — Sophocles, 496-406 BC, Ancient tragic poet 6 likes |
 | Experience created the art but inexperience created the luck. Η μεν εμπειρία τέχνην εποίησεν, η δ’ απειρία τύχην. — Aristotle, 384-322 BC, Ancient Greek philosopher 5 likes |
 | Experience defeats inexperience. Η εμπειρία της απειρίας κρατεί. — Euripides, 480-406 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Peleus 4 likes |
Proverbs
 | From failure one becomes smart. 3 likes |
