Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Quotes 243. The quote today is by Confucius. You know,
of course the very famous Chinese philosopher. From you know, a long, long
time ago. All right. Let's take a look at this quote. The first part is " By three
methods we may learn wisdom. First by reflection which is the noblest. Second
by imitation which is the easiest and third by experience which is the
bitterest. " You know the most painful. All right. So let's continue with this quote.
Confucius is literally giving you three methods, not only to learn but to become
wiser. We can learn many things in our life. They don't always make us wiser.
Yeah. You can learn the combination to a lock. That doesn't make you wiser. You can
learn some trivia about what movie star starred in that movie or you know who
won that Academy Award or you know who hit the most homeruns. These don't
necessarily make you wiser. You did learn something , but it didn't necessarily make
you a wiser person. Okay. It is only through a deeper understanding of
analyzing and distinguishing what is more important or morally right or wrong
can we become wiser. All right. Let's continue. Reflection is deep analyzing of our past
behavior and judging the morals of behavior. This is most noble because we
have to use our higher-level qualities and we have to use our understanding. We
have to use our thought. We have to use any spiritual aspects that we may have
about ourselves. So that's why this is the most noble. We have to use
these higher levels and one must be brave. Yes. Remember bravery is part of
being noble too. To fairly judge one's own actions in a fair truthful and unbiased
way, to improve oneself. Okay. Let's look at it. Let's continue. The second method is
the easiest because we simply have to follow and copy behavior of other
successful people who had good habits. Yeah. So that's why sometimes in a store you
see these people, they buy somebody's life story and they think maybe by you
know, trying to do the same thing, it doesn't always work out.... that they may also have
a successful life. But if you're serious about it, you could try to follow their
path and you know he's saying this might be the easiest way to do it. To become a
wiser person. Okay , and yeah, so you copy their behavior and there are other good
habits of course. And , and also their moral behavior. The third method is the
most bitter. Or the one that'll make you ... you might still learn, you might still
become wiser, but it's the most painful way to do it. We can understand this from
the idiom " to learn the hard way. " Yeah in English we have that to learn the hard
way , we hear that all the time. We always hear our parents and a teacher saying
"well I'm just warning you because I don't want you to have to learn the hard
way." I don't want you have to learn through making ... having the experience
and doing making mistakes and you learn through those mistakes. So from this
idiom 'to learn the hard way' hopefully you learn by your mistakes. So that's
another thing a lot of times we do make mistakes but sometimes we don't learn
from them. We have to make the same mistake again and again. Maybe before you
finally may learn from it and become wiser. It is the most painful. Painful
because you have to live with the consequences of your mistakes. Hopefully
you can make up for it. Hopefully and get past it. But you know, some mistakes, the
consequences may linger. So this is why it may be the bitterest, or you know the
one that may make you the most unhappy. But again, you could still become wise
this way as well. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time.
Bye-bye.