I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding; they learn by some other way - by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile! Richard Feynman
Nature, they say, doth dote, And cannot make a man Save on some worn-out plan, Repeating us by rote. James Russell Lowell
For language to be generative, children must not be learning by rote. Music is also generative. For every musical phrase I hear, I can always add a note... to generate a new musical phrase. Daniel Levitin
To cultivate the memory we should confide to it only what we understand and love: the rest is a useless burden; for simply to know by rote is not to know at all. John Lancaster Spalding
Dr. Johnson was a lazy learned man who liked to think and talk better than to read or write; who, however, wrote much and well, but too often by rote. William Hazlitt
I struggle to learn by rote. I've had meltdowns on set. Which is embarrassing and shameful. Benedict Cumberbatch