--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Time is a great teacher, but…" description: "\"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. Hector Berlioz It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.\"..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/826/alfred-adler-4921_berlioz_time-is-a-great-teacher-but-unfortunatel_1879430.jpg" --- # Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all… ![“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. Hector Berlioz It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.” quote by Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/826/alfred-adler-4921_berlioz_time-is-a-great-teacher-but-unfortunatel_1879430.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/826/alfred-adler-4921_berlioz_time-is-a-great-teacher-but-unfortunatel_1879430.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/826/alfred-adler-4921_berlioz_time-is-a-great-teacher-but-unfortunatel_1879430.jpg) > “Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. Hector Berlioz It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.” [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Time teaches lessons but ultimately ends all lives; fighting for ideals is easier than living them. **In simple terms:** Time kills; ideals are hard to uphold. Key Takeaway Live your principles daily. Themes time mortality principles integrity Mood thoughtful serious Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - Career decisions - personal relationships - political activism Key Concepts Philosophy ethics existentialism Questions to Reflect On - How do you balance ideals with reality? - What sacrifices are needed to stay true? A Different Perspective Idealism can clash with practical constraints. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Berlioz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/berlioz/) [Easier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/easier/) [Fighting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fighting/) [Great teacher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/great-teacher/) [Hector](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hector/) [Hector Berlioz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hector-berlioz-449591/) [Kills Pupils](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kills-pupils-911165/) [Principles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/principles/) [Pupils](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pupils/) [Pupils Hector](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pupils-hector-2644888/) [Teacher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/teacher/) [Teacher Unfortunately](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/teacher-unfortunately-244843/) ## Related quotes > [“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/time-is-a-great-teacher-but-unfortunately-it-kills-all-its-pupils/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Hector Berlioz’s witty comment, “Time is the great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all of its students.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-fritz/hector-berlioz-s-witty-comment-time-is-the-great-teacher-but/) [Robert Fritz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-fritz/) > [Heine commenting on the music of Louis Hector Berlioz: He is an immense nightingale, a lark as great as an eagle. . . .…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hector-berlioz/heine-commenting-on-the-music-of-louis-hector-berlioz-he-is-an/) [Hector Berlioz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hector-berlioz/) > [Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hector-berlioz/time-is-a-great-teacher-but-unfortunately-it-kills-all-its-pupils-2/) [Hector Berlioz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hector-berlioz/) > [“Time is a great teacher but unfortunately it kills its pupils.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/berlioz/time-is-a-great-teacher-but-unfortunately-it-kills-its-pupils/) [Berlioz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/berlioz/) > [“They say that time is a great teacher but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-lawrence/they-say-that-time-is-a-great-teacher-but-unfortunately-it-kills-all/) [Mark Lawrence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-lawrence/) > [“time is an excellent teacher - unfortunately it kills all its pupils”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/berlioz-hector-hector/time-is-an-excellent-teacher-unfortunately-it-kills-all-its-pupils/) [Berlioz Hector Hector](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/berlioz-hector-hector/) > [“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all pupils”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-hector-berlioz/time-is-a-great-teacher-but-unfortunately-it-kills-all-pupils/) [Louis Hector Berlioz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-hector-berlioz/) > [“Time is a great teacher. 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Berlioz: „Nie, to jednak cudzoziemiec!”, a Bezdomny: „O, cholera!...”.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikhail-bulgakov/ka-dy-z-literat-w-pomy-la-co-innego-berlioz-nie-to-jednak/) [Mikhail Bulgakov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikhail-bulgakov/) > [“The brick is neither here nor there,' interrupted the stranger in an imposing fashion, 'it never merely falls on someone's head from out of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikhail-bulgakov/the-brick-is-neither-here-nor-there-interrupted-the-stranger-in-an/) [Mikhail Bulgakov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikhail-bulgakov/) > [If you want to find the source of much of the music of modern day Russia, you will find it in the incredible compositions…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/if-you-want-to-find-the-source-of-much-of-the-music-of-modern-day/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [Ah! My dear friend painting is to us what the music of Berlioz and Wagner was before us - a consolatory art for sore…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vincent-van-gogh/ah-my-dear-friend-painting-is-to-us-what-the-music-of-berlioz-and/) [Vincent Van Gogh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vincent-van-gogh/) ## More by Alfred Adler > [Play is a child's work and this is not a trivial pursuit.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/play-is-a-child-s-work-and-this-is-not-a-trivial-pursuit/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [There is a law that man should love his neighbor as himself. In a few hundred years it should be as natural to mankind…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/there-is-a-law-that-man-should-love-his-neighbor-as-himself-in-a-few/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [Nobody adopts antisocial behaviour unless they fear that they will fail if they remain on the social side of life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/nobody-adopts-antisocial-behaviour-unless-they-fear-that-they-will/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [What person, confined in a small room with nothing but a tea-cosy, will not eventually put the tea-cosy on their head?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/what-person-confined-in-a-small-room-with-nothing-but-a-tea-cosy-will/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [I am grateful for the idea that has used me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/i-am-grateful-for-the-idea-that-has-used-me/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [The feeling of inferiority rules the mental life and can be clearly recognized in the sense of incompleteness and un-fulfillment, and in the uninterrupted…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/the-feeling-of-inferiority-rules-the-mental-life-and-can-be-clearly/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [Far more unwaveringly, the neurotic keeps before his eye his God, his idol, his ideal of personality and clings to his guiding principle, losing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/far-more-unwaveringly-the-neurotic-keeps-before-his-eye-his-god-his/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [The test of one's behavior pattern is their relationship to society, relationship to work and relationship to sex.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/the-test-of-one-s-behavior-pattern-is-their-relationship-to-society/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [There are thousands of degrees and variations, but it is always clearly the attitude of a person who finds his superiority in solving the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/there-are-thousands-of-degrees-and-variations-but-it-is-always/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [You can be healed of depression if every day you begin the first thing in the morning to consider how you will bring a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/you-can-be-healed-of-depression-if-every-day-you-begin-the-first/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [It is very obvious that we are not influenced by "facts" but by our interpretation of the facts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/it-is-very-obvious-that-we-are-not-influenced-by-facts-but-by-our/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [In God's nature, religious mankind perceives the way to height. In His call it hears again the innate voice of life which must have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/in-god-s-nature-religious-mankind-perceives-the-way-to-height-in-his/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [Man knows much more than he understands.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/man-knows-much-more-than-he-understands/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [Every pampered child becomes a hated child… There is no greater evil than the pampering of children.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/every-pampered-child-becomes-a-hated-child-there-is-no-greater-evil/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) > [Every neurotic is partly in the right.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-adler/every-neurotic-is-partly-in-the-right/) [Alfred Adler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) [Explore all 105 Alfred Adler quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-adler/) ## More Berlioz quotes > [“Hector Berlioz’s witty comment, “Time is the great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all of its students.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-fritz/hector-berlioz-s-witty-comment-time-is-the-great-teacher-but/) [Robert Fritz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-fritz/) > [Ah! My dear friend painting is to us what the music of Berlioz and Wagner was before us - a consolatory art for sore…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vincent-van-gogh/ah-my-dear-friend-painting-is-to-us-what-the-music-of-berlioz-and/) [Vincent Van Gogh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vincent-van-gogh/) > [If you want to find the source of much of the music of modern day Russia, you will find it in the incredible compositions…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/if-you-want-to-find-the-source-of-much-of-the-music-of-modern-day/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“The brick is neither here nor there,' interrupted the stranger in an imposing fashion, 'it never merely falls on someone's head from out of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikhail-bulgakov/the-brick-is-neither-here-nor-there-interrupted-the-stranger-in-an/) [Mikhail Bulgakov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikhail-bulgakov/) > [“Have just been run over by tram-car at Patriarch's Ponds funeral Friday three pm come. Berlioz.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bulgakov/have-just-been-run-over-by-tram-car-at-patriarch-s-ponds-funeral/) [Bulgakov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bulgakov/) > [“Każdy z literatów pomyślał co innego. Berlioz: „Nie, to jednak cudzoziemiec!”, a Bezdomny: „O, cholera!...”.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikhail-bulgakov/ka-dy-z-literat-w-pomy-la-co-innego-berlioz-nie-to-jednak/) [Mikhail Bulgakov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikhail-bulgakov/) > [“Without those peak experiences our lives would be pretty dull and flat. Berlioz put it this way: A life without once reading Hamlet is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haruki-murakami/without-those-peak-experiences-our-lives-would-be-pretty-dull-and/) [Haruki Murakami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/haruki-murakami/) > [Heine commenting on the music of Louis Hector Berlioz: He is an immense nightingale, a lark as great as an eagle. . . .…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hector-berlioz/heine-commenting-on-the-music-of-louis-hector-berlioz-he-is-an/) [Hector Berlioz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hector-berlioz/) > [In poetry there are two giants, rough Homer and fine Shakespere. 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