Roger Ascham Quotes

“Learning teacheth more in one year than experience in twenty”

fetche moe faultes, than this: which, I praie God, kepe out of 214 _The first booke teachyng_ England, and send also those of oures better mindes, which bend them selues againste vertue and learninge, to the con- tempte of God, dishonor of their contrie to the hurt of manie others, and at length, to the greatest harme, and vtter destruction of themselues. Som other, hauing better nature, but lesse witte, (for ill commonlie, haue ouer moch witte) do not vtterlie dispraise Experience // learning, but they saie, that without learning, without // common experience, knowledge of all facions, and learnyng. // haunting all companies, shall worke in yougthe, both wisdome, and habilitie, to execute anie weightie affaire. Surelie long experience doth proffet moch, but moste, and almost onelie to him (if we meene honest affaires) that is dili- gentlie before instructed with preceptes of well doinge. For good precepts of learning, be the eyes of the minde, to looke wiselie before a man, which waie to go right, and which not. Learning teacheth more in one yeare than experience in Learnyng. // twentie: And learning teacheth safelie. when experience maketh mo miserable then wise. He Experience. // hasardeth sore, that waxeth wise by experience. An vnhappie Master he is, that is made cunning by manie shippewrakes: A miserable merchant, that is neither riche or wise, but after som bankroutes. It is costlie wisdom, that is bought by experience. We know by experience it selfe, that it is a meruelous paine, to finde oute but a short waie, by long wandering. And surelie, he that wold proue wise by experience, he maie be wittie in deede, but euen like a swift runner, that runneth fast out of his waie, and vpon the night, he knoweth not whither. And verilie they be fewest of number, that be happie or wise by vnlearned experience. And looke well vpon the former life of those fewe, whether your example be old or yonge, who without learning haue gathered, by long experience, a litle wisdom, and som happines: and whan you do consider, what mischiefe they haue committed, what dangers they haue escaped (and yet xx.

“There is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.”

Roger Ascham

“I said... how, and why, young children, were sooner allured by love, than driven by beating, to attain good learning.”

Roger Ascham

“To speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do is style.”

Roger Ascham

The least learned, for the most part, have been always most ready to write.

Roger Ascham

He that will write well in any tongue, must follow this counsel of Aristotle, to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do: and so should every man understand him, and the judgment of wise men allow him.