I have this nifty little content widget on my Google home page that shows me a new quote each day. Most of the time they are pretty lame and I just ignore them but every once in a while I read an interesting one. The one I saw today seemed somewhat clever at first but then I realized it may have two completely unrelated meanings. The author of the quote is Marquis de Vauvenargues, whom I have no idea who he is so I don’t know the context of the quote.
The things we know best are the things we haven’t been taught.
At first I thought it meant that the things we learn on our own accord are the things we end up being experts at. I soon realized a second meaning could be that people often claim to be experts on things they know nothing about, hence the things we haven’t been taught.
What do you think?
December 10, 2007 at 9:19 pm
i think dats a great quote:)
i was looking for a quote for my essay
i think dis one will do
June 7, 2008 at 3:46 pm
i think it means that the things we know the most about are the things that CAN’T be taught. like our family, friends, and even our lives. we have to learn them on our own and take on our own perspectives of life.
June 12, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I think it means that the best, and most important things in life we teach ourselves, we adapt to our own ways and do not do what other’s tell us
March 28, 2009 at 2:05 pm
What I think this means is that the things we teach ourselves actively, rather than learning passively from others, helps us understand it more thoroughly as we’re more attentive to what we learn for ourselves.