Essay: are books more important than experiences?

[Teysun]

Sometimes we meet really wise persons, who become our authorities. We want to follow them and know, what exactly made them so worth respect: books or life experience?

First of all, I would like to emphasize a value of books. What we experience in daily life is only a tiny part of all the world and history. Humanity experience reaches really old times and the most splendid thing is that a lot of that wisdom was written and saved on paper. E.x. antiquity thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (via books) can teach us about life much more than we would do it by ourselves.

On the other hand, these magnificent people can help only if we not only read their wisdom, but also use it in a real life, cope with difficulties and improve our personalitites. Otherwise, person, who spends all days with books, will have only a theoretical understanding, while person, who probably does not read at all, will be accustomed to life trials and capable to deal with them.

To conclude, although both of these two sources play really significant role in our life, I believe that experiences without books are more needful than the opposite variant.

TOEFL listening lectures: A lecture by a professor of Sociobiology

[Kitosdad]

Sometimes we meet really wise PEOPLE who become our /authorities/LEADERS/GUIDES/. We want to follow them and know what exactly made them so worthY OF OUR respect: books or THEIR life experienceS?
First of all, I would like to emphasize THE value of books. What we experience in daily life is only a tiny part of all the world and history.
HumanitIES experience reaches really old times, and the most splendid thing is that a lot of that wisdom was written and HAS BEEN saved on paper. E.x. antiquATED thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (via books) can teach us much MORE ABOUT OUR LIVES than we COULD EVER do by ourselves.

On the other hand, these magnificent people can help only if we not only read their wisdom, but also use it in real life, cope with difficulties and improve our personalities. Otherwise, PEOPLE who spend all day with books, will have only a theoretical understanding, while PEOPLE who probably do not read at all, will be accustomed to life'S trials and BE capable OF dealING with them.

To conclude, although both of these two sources play really significant roleS in our LIVES, I believe that experiences without books are more MEANINGFUL AND CONFIDENCE-BUILDING than the opposite variant.
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Sorry for the delay Teysun. Your essay, although brief, was very thought-provoking.
Thank you for posting it.

Kitos.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Teysun]

Actually, I'm accustomed to brief (180 - 200 words) texts, because that is the requirement of English graduation exam in Lithuania's high schools.
Anyway, I'm so happy for your kind attention to my essay!
I really appreciate your help.

Teysun.

[Kitosdad]

I thought it was your intention to sit the TOEFL exam. You mentioned this in your earlier posts.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Teysun]

I am not sure that I've mentioned something about TOEFL exam. I've just made comments in some TOEFL prep forums for writing.
I believe that all topics, which I take from this site, are suitable for my practising.
Obviously, I'm more interested in IELTS exam for my future. Because it's more popular in my country.

Kind regards,
Teysun.

[Kitosdad]

You are right Teysun, it was Linda on your introductory posting. My mistake.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Civilengineer]

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?

From my point of view, experience in the best teacher. We can learn a lot important things from books but things that we learn by own experience is so much better and more efficient.
Children when go primary school they get ahead by experiences they gain in school. They learn how it feels to succeed and what they do when they fail. They don’t learn these things from books, but their experience whit their friends and classmate.

Moreover, in our university classes, we learn a lot of information and skills we will need for our future careers, but we also learn a lot that is not in our textbooks. Meanwhile in our daily lives both in class and out of class, we learn to make decisions for ourselves.

In my opinion, books teach us a lot, but there is a limit to what they teach. As well as books can give us information or show us another person’s experiences. But the lessons we learn from our own experiences, from childhood through adulthood, are the most important ones we learn.

[Kitosdad]

You are requested to post your essay as a "New Topic." If you just add your essay at the end of a previous one, it will be ignored.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.