#004: It has been said, “Not everything that is learne

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It has been said, “Not everything that is learned is contained in books.” Compare and contrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books. In your opinion, which source is more important? Why?

 

 

There are many things that one can understand through personal experience, but I believe that books give the greatest knowledge. Books educate people. The knowledge that one gets from reading is deeper and greater than the knowledge gained from personal experience. The knowledge gained from reading books not only makes one’s life more interesting and exciting, but it also can change one’s life. Undoubtedly, books are the most important source of knowledge.

 

One reason for my belief is that books contain the knowledge and experience of many people. Great achievements, results of experiments, sciences, etc. are all included in books. The knowledge gained from one’s life experience is valuable, but the sum of knowledge of many people is much more important. For example, if one wants to get an education, he or she has to read books that reflect the knowledge of many people. If one wants to learn about a foreign country, the easiest way to find information is by reading about that country. Books not only have information that educates people, but many books also are written to entertain people. This plays a very important role in people’s recreation. The most important aspect about books is that they can teach us many different subjects: from physics and math to how to build a house or a space shuttle to relationships among people.

 

Another reason for my belief is that books contain much information about the past. Everybody makes mistakes, but reading about other peoples’ mistakes might help to avoid those mistakes. For example, studying history might help to avoid many mistakes made in the past. As George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” It is impossible to learn about history through personal experience, but it is possible to learn about history from reading books. For example, reading about wars might help to prevent similar wars in the future.

 

However, there are some things that one cannot learn from reading books and can understand only by experiencing those things. For example, the feeling of love. No matter how much one reads about love, this feeling is not possible to understand unless one experiences it.

 

Aristotle once said, “The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.” In order to truly be educated, people must gain knowledge from both books and from personal experiences. For all of the reasons mentioned above, I believe that the best source for obtaining knowledge is from reading books. Books contain a great amount of knowledge, because they reflect the experiences and ideas of many people. However, sometimes in order to understand some aspects of our life, one has to experience them.