On Experience (From Fiction to Science Fiction)

"Experience is the child of Thought, and Thought is the child of Action. We cannot learn men from books." (Benjamin Disraeli, "Vivian Grey", 1826)

"Human existence is girt round with mystery: the narrow region of our experience is a small island in the midst of a boundless sea." (John S Mill, "Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism", 1874)

"Experience is never limited and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web, of the finest silken threads, suspended in the chamber of consciousness and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue." (Henry James, "The Art of Fiction", 1884)

"Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes." (Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", 1891)

 "All experience is an arch, to build upon." (Henry B Adams, "The Education of Henry Adams", 1907)

"Knowledge is the distilled essence of our intuitions, corroborated by experience." (Elbert Hubbard, "A Thousand & One Epigrams, 1911)

"A course of instruction will be the more successful the more its individual phases assume the character of experience." (Hugo von Hofmannsthal, "Buch der Freunde" ["Book of Friends"], 1922) 

"The subtlest and most pervasive of all influences are those which create and maintain the repertory of stereotypes. We are told about the world before we see it. We imagine most things before we experience them." (Walter Lippmann, "Public Opinion", 1922)

"Human language is naturally wanting in words that are adequate for the delineation of events and sensations beyond the normal scope of human experience." (Clark A Smith, "The City of the Singing Flame", 1931)

"We live in reference to past experience and not to future events, however inevitable." (Herbert G Wells, "Mind at the End of Its Tether", 1946)

"A piece of scientific fiction is a narrative of an imaginary invention or discovery in the natural sciences and consequent adventures and experiences." (James O Bailey, "Pilgrims through Space and Time", 1947)

"Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern." (Alfred N Whitehead, "Dialogues", 1954)

"It’s the highest goal of man - the need to grow and advance [...] to find new things [...] to expand. To spread out, reach areas, experiences, comprehend and live in an evolving fashion. To push aside routine and repetition, to break out of mindless monotony and thrust forward. To keep moving on [...]" (Philip K Dick, "Solar Lottery", 1955)

"Life is just a process of picking up scars and experience." (Michael Swanwick, "Ginungagap", 1980)

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." (Douglas Adams, "Last Chance to See", 1990)

"The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public." (Samuel Johnson)