My dad taught me how to play tennis, and I owe that to him. But the better you get, the higher you climb, and the more lonely you get. I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of personal relationships, but that’s the choice I made.
In Bonn, where I studied for a year, I changed from classical to Romance philology, taught there by its great founder, F. Diez, and at the beginning of 1852, I received the doctorate for a dissertation on the refrain in Provencal poetry.
All around me, I saw people who were taught by their parents, as I was, to just toe the line, not ruffle the feathers, not rock the boat too much and just put your head down, do your work and that’s it. And I think that as a community, we’re reaching the limitations of that kind of thinking.
I was a dancer for many years. I was a premier dancer with ‘Porgy and Bess,’ the opera. And I taught dance some, in different places.
When every court was saying ‘no,’ I believe God was still saying yes. I had to somehow find that faith and reach deep down in my soul and believe in the teaching that my mother taught me as a young boy, that God can do everything but fail.
My childhood was all about going to church, singing in church. And later on, after I got a little older, my mother taught me how to do poems for Easter and Mother’s Day, recitals and so on. I got attached to that, so as I got older and older, I began to recite poetry.
I got taught respect because if not, somebody’s gonna make you respect them.
The most important lesson my dad taught me was how to manage fear. Early on, he taught me that in a time of emergency, you’ve got to become deliberately calm.
Someone taught me this really lovely thing, which is when you’re panicking or thinking, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t do this,’ you just say, ‘Right. Hi, negative thoughts. Stop bothering me. If you just wait there, I’m going to do this job, then I’ll come back and talk to you later.’
We’re all taught to blend in and behave.
In grade school I was taught that the United States is a melting pot. People from all over the world come here for freedom and to pursue a better life. They arrive with next to nothing, work incredibly hard, learn a new language and new customs, and in a generation they become an integral part of our amazing nation.
Ah-rah-han, the first Buddhist apostle of Burma, under the patronage of King Anan-ra-tha-men-zan, disseminated the doctrines of atheism and taught his disciples to pant after annihilation as the supreme good.
Unhappiness is something we are never taught about; we are taught to expect happiness, but never a Plan B to use to use when the happiness doesn’t arrive.
I think the saddest moment in my life just happened two months ago. My old nightclub partner passed away, Phil Erickson down in Atlanta. He – I owe him everything. He put me in the business and taught me about everything I know.
Being pretty on the inside means you don’t hit your brother and you eat all your peas – that’s what my grandma taught me.
My experience as a school nurse taught me that we need to make a concerted effort, all of us, to increase physical fitness activity among our children and to encourage all Americans to adopt a healthier diet that includes fruits and vegetables, but there is more.
My dad taught me true words you have to use in every relationship. Yes, baby.
Being a pastor’s kid comes with a lot of pressure and scrutiny. A lot of my dad’s sermons were about respect. It was a beautiful way to be taught about love and two people being equal.
I was taught in Bible college, religion and politics don’t mix.
Something my mum taught me years and years and years ago, is life’s just too short to carry around a great bucket-load of anger and resentment and bitterness and hatreds and all that sort of stuff.
I have been lucky to find very good collaborators who have taught me a lot, have introduced me to several new fields of mathematics, or have shown me new insights.
I sincerely believe I could have wounded up in a lot of trouble if I had not been taught as a boy to fear Hell, and to believe that certain wicked acts could lead me to damnation.
The teachers who taught me at Dreghorn Primary and Greenwood Academy were fantastic.
Most boys’ first hero is their father. That was definitely true of my dad. He was a proud Irish American and he taught me a lot about ethics and responsibility. He also introduced me to a lot of wonderful folk music.
You don’t hate history, you hate the way it was taught to you in high school.
When eventually I started to act a bit more, I realised that circus school had taught me something that a lot of actors my age didn’t have: physicality. They didn’t know how to move. Acting is not all about talking. There is something animalistic about it.
My dad taught me from my youngest childhood memories through these connections with Aboriginal and tribal people that you must always protect people’s sacred status, regardless of the past.
My mother taught me that when you stand in the truth and someone tells a lie about you, don’t fight it.
Both parents were hard-working and made me work for my pocket money by doing household chores. That taught me the value of money and gave me a strong work ethic.
I’m a very positive person. My grandmother taught me that happiness is both a skill and a decision, and you are responsible for the outcome.
