Origin
The great Roman leader Julius Caesar recorded the earliest known version of this proverb, ‘Experience is the teacher of all things,’ in ‘De Bello Civili’ (c. 52 B.C.).
Explanation
You will learn more from things that happen to you in real life than you will from hearing about or studying things that happen to other people. Life teaches more effectively than books or school. Experience is the best agency through which one can learn almost anything under the sun. An ounce of practice equals tons of theory. Practice makes man perfect. The way to perfection lies in the path of practice. It is said that bookish knowledge should be corroborated by practical knowledge. But if it is said the other way round, it is better if the practical knowledge is corroborated by a good knowledge of theory as well. The absence of theoretical knowledge is not so great a handicap as the absence of practical knowledge. We may warn a child a dozen times a day against playing with fire. But he does not believe you until he scorches his hand.
Examples
I don’t care how many books you read about how to run a business; experience is the best teacher.
The nurse believed that experience is the best teacher when it came to developing bedside manner, so she made sure that all her students spent a lot of time with patients.