It made sense that someone must have made a remark along those lines, so the obvious thing to do was run a search. It was that way that I found that James P. Carse, in Finite and Infinite Games, writes:
To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.Stumbling onto that quote was a bit of a surprise in itself. I read Carse's book many years ago (my paperback is from 1987, published by Penguin). I have to admit that I don't remember those particular two sentences. Frankly, I don't remember being overly impressed with the book, though its Wikipedia entry suggests that it's well respected. I did, however, know just where to find it on one of my bookshelves, and I was able to find those sentences on page 19 of my copy. I like Carse's distinction between being prepared against or prepared for, though I can't say that my opinion toward the book underwent any serious improvement as a result of my renewed (albeit short) meeting with it. Those sentences did, however, bring to mind Moshe Caspi's oft-quoted (by me at least) remark that you have to be prepared for serendipity. It seems to me that seeing education as this sort of preparation is at the very base of Moshe's educational philosophy.