151Japanese maxim 格言
学問に王道なし
がくもんにおうどうなしGakumon ni ōdō nashi
“There is no royal road to learning.”
The meaning
No one learns in your place, and no shortcut replaces study. The good news: the ordinary road — regularity, practice, time — is open to everyone.
At the origin
The Japanese adaptation of Euclid's word to king Ptolemy: "there is no royal road to geometry".
The characters
- 学問 gakumonlearning
- に nifor, in
- 王道
- なし
にParticleThe point of arrival: a place, a moment, a destination.
In practice
Replace the search for tricks with twenty minutes of real study.
Editorial note
Adapted from a saying attributed to Euclid.
Themes
In the collections · Michi
Similar proverbs
- 003 千里の道も一歩から A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.
- 200 人の一生は重荷を負うて遠き道を行くが如し A man's life is a long road walked under a burden; there is no need to hurry.
- 252 文武両道 The pen and the sword, both ways.
- 283 学びて思わざれば則ち罔し Learning without thinking leads only to darkness.
- 053 旅は道連れ世は情け On a journey, a companion; in life, kindness.