The student who memorizes the words, "all bodies attract one another directly in proportion to their mass and inversely in proportion to the square of the distance between them," knows little or nothing about the law of gravitation, while the student who understands just what those words mean, whether he is able to repeat them correctly or not, does know the law of gravitation, and, if necessary, can probably apply it.
"Analyzing Character"
Katherine M. H. Blackford and Arthur Newcomb
They have shown that the person who memorizes the propositions of Euclid by number is no more capable of memorizing other facts than he was before, and that the learning of proofs verbatim is of no assistance whatever in retaining matter that is helpful in other lines of work.
"The Teaching of Geometry"
David Eugene Smith
He memorizes the Psalms.
"The Glories of Ireland"
Edited by Joseph Dunn and P.J. Lennox