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My teacher told me I'd never amount to anything. I left high school at 15, after one year. But my real teachers were all the people around me. And I was a good listener.
Curtis Mayfield
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Formal education is not the only source of learning; real-life experiences and interactions can teach us valuable lessons.

In this quote, Curtis Mayfield reflects on his early experiences in education, where he felt underestimated by traditional schooling. He emphasizes the importance of informal learning through observation and listening to those around him, suggesting that valuable life lessons often come from our interactions with others rather than from formal educational settings.

Themes

EducationLearningObservationExperienceListening

In practice

Example use cases

During a graduation speech to inspire students to seek knowledge beyond the classroom.

More from Curtis Mayfield

If there's hell below, we're all gonna go.
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How many 54-year-old quadriplegics are putting albums out? You just have to deal with what you got, try to sustain yourself as best you can, and look to the things that you can do.
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Reading the script, I started feeling very deeply bad for Freddie. Between his friends, his partners, and his woman, he was catching a hard time. 'Freddie's Dead' came to me immediately.
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I was a very observant child. Almost anything could become a song to me.
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I don't like to appoint myself to nothing, knowing I'm no better than anybody else. But it always makes me feel good to know I try to do the best I can, and those who might observe say, 'Hey, I can take a little something from that person.'
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Everything was a song. Every conversation, every personal hurt, every observance of people in stress, happiness and love... if you could feel it, I could feel it. And I could write a song about it.
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Quote by Curtis Mayfield | QuoteProject