Mr. Smith spoke of the "lessons of the last few years".
He spoke of the lessons of the nation's calamitous recent history.
In recalling his wartime service, Mr. Lafont spoke of the lessons learned by the French and British.
He spoke of the "lessons of Kosovo," and when he became a Presidential candidate his criticism of the Iraq war was framed by his Kosovo experience.
Not completely, of course, In the 1980's, during the height of the so-called bubble economy and talk of "Japan as No. 1," some businessmen and politicians spoke of teaching lessons to the world.
He spoke of the lessons the organization is learning there about how to be better prepared for an era of messier wars and freelance warlords impervious to the international pressures that once helped rein in renegade governments.
Ana Ivanović spoke of the lessons she had learned from her personal successes and defeats in the field, about the importance of making a personal decision and choosing the way to react to other people's behaviour.
Smith spent Monday trying to learn from his mistakes, and after watching the film he spoke of a lesson that Peyton Manning very well may have learned 15 years ago.
Abed, 76, spoke of the key lessons he had learned over the years after giving up a job with Shell in Chittagong.
Joining Mr. Rumsfeld at a NATO defense ministers meeting here, Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke of a grim lesson for America's foes that emerged from the ambush on Sunday of an Army convoy in Samarra.
