“Tell me and I forget; teach me and I may remember; involve me and I will learn”
This, one of our favourite quotes, has often been credited to Benjamin Franklin, but the truth is – Franklin never said it. The quote, in fact, comes from a far different source.
Xun Kuang was a Chinese Confucian philosopher that lived from 312-230 BC. His works were collected into a set of 32 books called the Xunzi, by Liu Xiang in about 818 AD; There are woodblock copies of these books that are almost 1100 years old. Book 8 is titled Ruxiao (“The Teachings of the Ru”), and our quotation in question comes from Chapter 11 of that book. In Chinese the quote is:
不闻不若闻之, 闻之不若见之, 见之不若知之, 知之不若行之
It is derived from this paragraph:
Not having heard something is not as good as having heard it; having heard it is not as good as having seen it; having seen it is not as good as knowing it; knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice.
We, here at Geist, absolutely agree; Though we can hardly claim any profound wisdom, such as that which Confucian philosophers possessed, our own learning philosophy is very much aligned with this ancient principle – and it is with this principle that we plan to impart our own knowledge, to you. We believe knowledge is to be shared, and we hope to soon engage you in what we believe will be a dynamic learning experience.
Please check back, often, as we build our collection of online resources, right here on our website. We hope you will find them valuable!