knowledge quotes from influential philosophers, authors and people
"As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself."
98
"The love of anything is the fruit of our knowledge of it, and grows as our knowledge deepens."
112
"The knowledge of all things is possible."
114
"For in truth great love is born of great knowledge of the thing loved."
118
"True love is born from understanding."
175
"There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe."
381
"The further one goes, the less one knows."
502
"There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent."
503
"Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it."
508
"The wise man is one who, knows, what he does not know."
510
"To attain knowledge, add things everyday. To attain wisdom, remove things every day."
511
"Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know."
538
"The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth."
546
"What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean."
570
"No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess."
571
"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think."
597
"And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul."
623
"Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom."
629
"A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers."
642
"Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge."
643
"I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."
649
"Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it."
682
"The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing."
687
"The pursuit of what is true and the practice of what is good are the two most important objects of philosophy."
710
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."
711
"Love truth, but pardon error."
726
"Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time."
729
"Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?"
730
"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things."
907
"I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain."
908
"And thus, the actions of life often not allowing any delay, it is a truth very certain that, when it is not in our power to determine the most true opinions we ought to follow the most probable."
915
"There is nothing more ancient than the truth."
921
"Because reason...is the only thing that makes us men, and distinguishes us from the beasts, I would prefer to believe that it exists, in its entirety, in each of us..."
930
"The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts."
931
"It is best not to go on for great quest for truth , it will only make you miserable."
937
"Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours."
940
"The only defense against the world is a thorough knowledge of it."
943
"To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues."
948
"No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience."
950
"There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men."
951
"Our Business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct."
955
"Few men think, yet all will have opinions. Hence men’s opinions are superficial and confused."
957
"One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant."
960
"It is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish which lies in the way to knowledge."
964
"I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith."
969
"Dare to think!"
971
"All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason."
972
"Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt."
974
"For peace to reign on Earth, humans must evolve into new beings who have learned to see the whole first."
975
"Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person."
977
"Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind."
982
"If the truth shall kill them, let them die."
984
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity."
989
"Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play."
991
"Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason."
992
"People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little."
995
"The truth brings no man a fortune."
1016
"Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object."
1038
"An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself."
1049
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
1054
"How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!"
1093
"The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion."
1173
"I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned."
1181
"I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."
1182
"Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on."
1183
"I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong."
1184
"We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress."
1185
"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!"
1186
"I’m smart enough to know that I’m dumb."
1189
"Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also."
67
"When was the last time you sought knowledge simply for the pursuit of truth? What did you gain from this effort? Think of the people you know. Do any of them strike you as embodying the ideals of Curiositá? How are their lives enriched by this?"
119
"If, in the future, all life is programmable, those with the right knowledge and capability will be in possession of unfathomable power. They could create life, and tweak existing life forms, to do almost anything - be it good or bad."
219
"There's nothing like the satisfaction of knowing you're doing something well, that you've worked and practiced hard to achieve your own standards of excellence. That's what mastery is: the drive to improve our skills or knowledge in areas we're passionate about."
226
"When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul's call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers. We're doing exactly what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do from birth. Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification and hard work, we simply consume a product."
314
"Only the descent into the hell of self-knowledge can pave the way to godliness."
990