Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Source identified
They teach us quite as much as we teach them.
Read & copy the quotation
“They teach us quite as much as we teach them.”

Louisa May Alcott

Download image (JPG)

Source
Little Men
Date
1871
Local voice
Fictional character · Friedrich Bhaer
Meaning

Meaning of “They teach us quite as much as we…”

Education is reciprocal: adults may guide children, but close attention to children also teaches adults patience, perspective, honesty, and better ways of understanding growth.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Little Men; the observation describes the mutual education taking place in the Plumfield household and school rather than a one-way transfer of knowledge.

Primary / edition source ↗

Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

Mr. Bhaer says this in Little Men while he and Jo watch the children at Plumfield.

Customize your imageTen designs · Square or portrait · Preview and share
Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

Change and GrowthEducation Quotes About Teaching & Intellectual FormationFamilyGrowthGrowth MindsetHumilityLearning Quotes About Curiosity, Study & ExperienceLifeLife LessonsMindsetShortWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living WellChildrenEmpathyParenting
Related quotations

Continue through nearby ideas

Source identified
Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.
Read & copy

“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”

Oscar Wilde · The Picture of Dorian Gray — 1891 edition · 1891
Voice: Narrator voice · Narrator, focalized through Lord Henry
Meaning & context

The wit turns “experience” into a retrospective label for errors, suggesting that mistakes become useful only when understood.

Source details

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Chapter 4; third-person narration focalized through Lord Henry reflects that experience is the name people give to their mistakes.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
The education of character is very much a question of models.
Read & copy

“The education of character is very much a question of models.”

Samuel Smiles · Self-Help · 1859
Meaning & context

People absorb conduct from examples around them, so lived models can teach more powerfully than rules that are contradicted by behavior.

Source details

Self-Help, Chapter XII, “Example—Models,” Project Gutenberg #935. Smiles argues that character education depends heavily on models because people unconsciously mould themselves after the characters, manners, habits and opinions around them.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
To have faults and not to reform them,—this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.
Read & copy

“To have faults and not to reform them,—this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.”

Confucius · The Analects of Confucius · James Legge translation
Meaning & context

Making an error is less serious than refusing to correct it after the problem has become visible.

Source details

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV distinguishes ordinary faults from the refusal to reform them.

↓ Download image (JPG)