Quote of the Day: "Learn something"

[ellenkushner]

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin.... "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn." -- T. H. White, The Once and Future King

Comments

[girasole.livejournal.com]

thank you for this. It was the precise thing I needed to hear this night.

[coppervale.livejournal.com]

Wonderful quote, Ellen. Thanks for posting this.

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

I have two directly conflicting thoughts about that.

The first is: OMG YES. That is the way it is; so beautifully true.

The second is: T.H. White could not have written that if he'd had the internet, because the internet can teach you things that you will genuinely regret learning.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

"There is no truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world." I don't thnk Thomas Jefferson would have changed his mind even if he *had* had the Internet.

On the other hand, I bet as President he found a good many facts he didn't particularly want to broadcast to the whole world.

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

There can be no doubt that the T-Jeff was hard core. On the other hand, he hadn't yet had to contend with the terrible arithmetic of ubiquitous video cameras + teenagers + near complete absence of apprentice culture.

[hazelwitch.livejournal.com]

T-Jeff vs. Goatse/Tubgirl.

Some things...

[elissa-carey.livejournal.com]

My panacea has been work, but a similar principle applies. Thank you for the posting.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I tracked down the quote in response to Maureen McHugh's comment on FaceBook about work making her happy. I think you can substitute the word and it still reads well.

[hazelwitch.livejournal.com]

I love this quote, and it reminds me that I have so much yet to learn.

[pameladean]

That may be my favorite White quote ever. Always a pleasure to see it.

P.

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

The very first time I read this passage of The Once and Future King, I took it to mean that the best way to become sad was to learn. A more circuitous way of saying that ignorance is bliss, if you will. It seemed to work quite well as a description of White's life, who apparently learned a tremendous lot of things and led a very unhappy life. Of course, once I recognized my mistake, I saw it still worked vis-à-vis de White. The cause and effect system just had to be considered the other way round.

I've grown tired of Arthurian fantasy as a whole (how many variations can you do on the theme, even with different protagonists to tell it all?) but The Once and Future King is still one of my treasured books.

[pyrrhical.livejournal.com]

I have that quote dog-eared, high-lighted, and annotated in my copy of The Once and Future King. I have, in fact, even used it for a teaching point. I adore it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I always loved that bit!

[beth-bernobich.livejournal.com]

How lovely and true.

Now I must find my own tattered copy of the book, because there are many lovely and true things therein.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

"you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins"

OMG! He knew!

I didn't pick up on that when I read it, because I was much younger & not showing symptoms yet. But, wow. That is exactly what it's like.