Charlie Munger on Learning Quotes

"If you don't get this elementary, but mildly unnatural, mathematics of elementary probability into your repertoire, then you go through a long life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest."

"If you think your IQ is 160 but it’s 150, you’re a disaster. It’s much better to have a 130 IQ and think it’s 120."

"You need to have a mental model of the world in your head."

"We read a lot. I don’t know anyone who’s wise who doesn’t read a lot. But that’s not enough: You have to have a temperament to grab ideas and do sensible things."

"You don't have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long time."

"To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

"To a man with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

"We all are learning, modifying, or destroying ideas all the time."

"You should have a lot of models in your head."

"Without the method of learning, you're like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. It's just not going to work very well."

"Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward."

"Almost everyone has the ability to be more certain than they should be."

"I met the towering intellectuals in books, not in the classroom, which is natural."

"The compounding of knowledge is the most efficient form of growth."

"Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day."

"If you want to get smart, the question you have to keep asking is 'why, why, why?'"

"Avoid the 'man with a hammer' syndrome to maintain cognitive efficiency."

"If you keep learning all the time, you have a huge advantage."

"If you're not learning, you're not going to be a good investor."

"You have to keep learning if you want to become a master of anything."

"You need to know the big ideas in the big disciplines and use them routinely—all of them, not just a few."

"If you want to be a great thinker, you must develop a mind that can jump the boundaries of many disciplines."

"If you want to be a good thinker, you must develop a mind that can jump the jurisdictional boundaries."

"Being a learning machine is the most efficient way to stay relevant."

"Darwin’s result was due in large measure to his working method, which violated all my rules for 'creativity' but worked."

"If you think you're going to be a great investor and not be a continuous learner, you're going to fail."

"Master the best that other people have ever figured out. I don't believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody's that smart."

"Being a learning machine is very important. You have to have the passion for learning."

"Knowing what you don't know is more useful than being brilliant."

"Wisdom acquisition is a moral duty. It's not something you do just to advance in life."

"I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines."

"I have never seen a person who was not a reader who was also a successful person in business."

"I met the towering intellectuals in books, not in school, which is natural."