“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.”

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Meaning

Learning is not just collecting new facts. It can also be the moment when something familiar becomes clear in a different way. The quote suggests that real understanding often feels like recognition rather than discovery.

When It Was Said

1969

Who It Was Said To

Not documented yet.

Historical Context

Not documented yet.

Source

The Four-Gated City (1969)

Original Language & Translation

Originally said in English.

Did They Really Say It?

Listed with a cited source on Wikiquote.

Did You Know?

Cited with a source on Wikiquote: The Four-Gated City (1969).

About Doris Lessing

British novelist

Doris Lessing was a British novelist, born in Iran and later associated with Southern Rhodesia and England. She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007 and is known for fiction shaped by displacement, political questionings, and changing personal and social worlds. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing, the five-volume Children of Violence sequence, The Golden Notebook, The Good Terrorist, and the five books of Canopus in Argos: Archives. Her work often engages with society, ideology, and the pressures placed on individual lives.

More from Doris Lessing (160 quotes) →

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Books by Doris Lessing

The Golden Notebook

1962

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Alfred and Emily

2008

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Ben, in the World

2000

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Mara and Dann

1999

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The Summer Before the Dark

1973

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