A Quote by Ivan Illich

School prepares for the alienating institutionalization of life by teaching the need to be taught. Once this lesson is learned, people lose their incentive to grow in independence; they no longer find relatedness attractive, and close themselves off to the surprises which life offers when it is not predetermined by institutional definition.

Ivan Illich

Quote Topics

Attractive Close Definition Find Grow Incentive Independence Institutional Learned Lesson Life Longer Lose Need Off Offers Once People Predetermined School Surprises Taught Teaching Themselves Which

Quote Author

Ivan Illich
American - Sociologist
September 4, 1926 - December 2, 2002

School prepares for the alienating institutionalization of life by teaching the need to be taught.

Ivan Illich

I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again.

Christina Baker Kline

The Savior taught His disciples, 'For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it' (Luke 9:24)."I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives.

Thomas S. Monson

Our equal and opposite needs for solitude and community constitute a great paradox. When it is torn apart, both of these life-giving states of being degenerate into deathly specters of themselves. Solitude split off from community is no longer a rich and fulfilling experience of inwardness; now it becomes loneliness, a terrible isolation. Community split off from solitude is no longer a nurturing network of relationships; now it becomes a crowd, an alienating buzz of too many people and too much noise.

Parker J. Palmer

You have to realize the truth of biologist Julian Huxley's idea that 'Life is just one damn relatedness after another' "So you must have the models, and you must see the relatedness and the effects from the relatedness.

Charlie Munger

And just then he realized in a flash that men have only this sad knowledge with which to heal themselves: when you lose life, you grow wise. But that is better than maiming life to hold it.

John Holmes

I learned a valuable life lesson that summer. You should find something in life that you really enjoy and seriously consider making that your life's work.

Jim Evans

As actors, we have to be able to keep ourselves open to feel, and that's a life lesson I think many people don't get a chance to learn. In my personal life, I've learned to carry this lesson with me.

Betsy Landin

Children need close friends to help them grow up, to discover things about themselves and about life. They also need close friends to keep them sane

Cecelia Ahern

I was in Korea. I've noticed all my life I see elderly people who have been close to death in an illness and they're absolutely cured and they say, now I know how to live my life. I've seen death. That happened to me when I was 19. It was a terrible, terrifying thing. And I live my life like those people decided to do when they were old. So, since I was 19, I've had the most fun possible every single day, even when I had a rough life. It was the army which taught me about life, and the theater which taught me how good it could be.

Michael Caine

I like the idea of teaching kids how to lose. That's a really important lesson in life. I don't like the idea of doing leadline where everyone gets a blue ribbon. I think it's unrealistic for kids and teaches the wrong lesson.

Georgina Bloomberg

Accept the fact that life presents us with opportunities to find more than one "one", and that you have learned a mighty life lesson when the next one comes along.

Emily Yoffe

I never felt I was attractive to women. I felt I was attractive to men when I was growing up. And even now, if a woman fancies me, I find that a bit alienating.

Russell Tovey

When people who are close to me say that they see positive changes in me as I grow, it makes me work harder on myself. Life always surprises us with something new, and I want to be capable enough to handle it.

Harshvardhan Rane

It was never factually true that young people learn to read or do arithmetic primarily by being taught these things. These things are learned, but not really taught at all. Over-teaching interferes with learning, although the few who survive it may well come to imagine it was by an act of teaching.