Few question the value of experience. Almost every parent attempts, often with great difficulty, to teach their children to acquire some experience in life before making major decisions. New hires in most businesses go through training programs to prepare them for the challenges they will face, as does just about every aspiring doctor or lawyer. Young athletes, no matter how talented, are usually brought along slowly to gain seasoning before facing veteran opponents.
Although many teenagers and the ignorant of all ages insist they can waltz into any situation and do just fine the first time out, life often teaches them that they should have been more prudent. Experience is something that they did not think they would need until they had some.
And so, predictably, the internet is rife with quotes about experience by famous people. Albert Einstein said, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” The great physician William Osler observed, “The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.” The poet John Keats noted, “Nothing ever becomes real ‘til it is experienced — even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.” Oscar Wilde added, with typical acidity, “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” Even Oprah Winfrey has chimed in: “Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
