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  • 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.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Quotes 243. The quote today is by Confucius. You know,

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