"When one has finished building one's house,..." - Quote by Friedrich Nietzsche
When one has finished building one's house, one suddenly realizes that in the process one has learned something that one really needed to know in the worst way - before one began.
More by Friedrich Nietzsche
“O my brothers, am I then cruel? But I say: that which is falling should also be pushed!”
“What is originality? To see something that has no name as yet and hence cannot be mentioned although it stares us all in the face. The way men usually are, it takes a name to make something visible for them.”
“At every step one has to wrestle for truth; one has to surrender for it almost everything to which the heart, to which our love, our trust in life, cling otherwise. That requires greatness of soul: the service of truth is the hardest service. What does it mean, after all, to have integrity in matters of the spirit? That one is severe against one's heart...that one makes of every Yes and No a matter of conscience.”
More on Learning
“Learn, as if never overtaking your object, and yet as if apprehensive of losing it.”
“Experience is the only teacher, and we get his lesson indifferently in any school.”
“You can read a dozen different textbooks or how-to manuals that will tell you the basic rules of what makes a story - a beginning, a middle, and an end.”
More on Experience
“Of course, he who has put forth his total strength in fit actions, has the richest return of wisdom.”
“I've always been a generous and a kind person and so on, but never, ever have I experienced that kind of love. The world just looked different to me and still does.”
“So there you have it, a lifetime of first smelling the books, they all smell wonderful, reading the books, loving the books, and remembering the books.”