Quotes: Knowledge

A collection of quotes on a variety of topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Knowledge
Opposites are actually a unity.
Knowledge 295 Aristotle: “The knowledge of opposites is one.” Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Hegel.

I only know one thing—that I know nothing.
Knowledge 6 Plato: One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.

Get knowledge, but understand it.
Knowledge 42 Uncle “Buck” Price: “Get knowledge but get it with understanding.” Christianson, Fox at the Wood’s Edge: Loren Eiseley

Knowledge without greatness of spirit will lead to the destruction of humanity.
Knowledge 52 Homo duplex must learn that knowledge without greatness of spirit is not enough...or there will remain only his calcined cities and the little charcoal of his bones. Eiseley, The Star Thrower

Interest leads to knowledge.
Knowledge 118 ...no limit to how much detail you will be able to explore on a subject that interests you...a doorway to all knowledge. Gates, The Road Ahead.

All I know is myself.
Knowledge 255 “I know myself,” he cried, “but that is all.” Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise.

True knowledge is knowing what we know and what we do not know.
Knowledge 331 Confucius said, “To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” Thoreau, Walden.

Restricting knowledge to a small core of people leads to spiritual poverty of the masses.
Knowledge xviii Restricting the body of knowledge to a small group deadens the philosophical spirit of a people and leads to spiritual poverty. Albert Einstein. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein.

Stupidity leads to clarity in what one knows.
Knowledge 214 The stupider one is, the clearer one is. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

The essence of knowledge is understanding changing reality.
Knowledge 399 Understanding how to get information about a changing reality will be the essence of knowledge…. Bradley, Time Present, Time Past.

A summary of the human race’s knowledge.
Knowledge vii Human knowledge had become unmanageably vast;…the telescope revealed stars and systems beyond the mind of man to number or to name; geology spoke in terms of millions of years, where men before had thought in terms of thousands; physics found a universe in the atom, and biology found a microcosm in the cell; physiology discovered inexhaustible mystery in every organ, and psychology in every dream; anthropology reconstructed the unsuspected antiquity of man, archeology unearthed buried cities and forgotten states; history proved all history false…theology crumbled…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy.

Knowledge split into a thousand isolated facts and no longer generated wisdom.
Knowledge viii “Facts” replaced understanding; and knowledge, split into a thousand isolated fragments, no longer generated wisdom. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy.

In the midst of unprecedented knowledge, ignorance flourished.
Knowledge viii In the midst of unprecedented learning popular ignorance flourished…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy.

No shortcut to knowledge.
Knowledge xiii God knows there is no shortcut to knowledge. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy.

Facts mean nothing without purpose and context.
Knowledge xxvii For a fact…is not complete except in relation to a purpose and a whole. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy.

To know what to ask is half the solution to a problem.
Knowledge 69 To know what to ask is already to know half. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Aristotle.

Knowledge not applied to action is only academic vanity.
Knowledge 111 ...that knowledge unapplied in action was a pale academic vanity. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.

A man is what he knows.
Knowledge 111 F. Bacon: ...a man is but what he knoweth. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.

Knowledge is power.
Knowledge 120 F. Bacon: Knowledge is power, not mere argument or ornament. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.

Happiness is the pursuit of knowledge and the joy of understanding.
Knowledge 166 Spinoza: Only knowledge, then, is power and freedom, and the only permanent happiness is the pursuit of knowledge and the joy of understanding. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.

Types of knowledge: hearsay, vague experience, from reasoning, and direct perception.
Knowledge 167 Spinoza: [Types of knowledge: hearsay; vague experience (intuitive knowledge?); knowledge reached by reasoning; direct perception.] Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.

The lowest kind of knowledge is knowledge that is not unified; science is partly unified knowledge; philosophy is unified knowledge. [Because it is a complete, unified system?]
Knowledge 366 Spencer: Knowledge of the lowest kind is un-unified knowledge; science is partially unified knowledge; philosophy is completely unified knowledge. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.

The uninformed think they are omniscient.
Knowledge 377 …the…omniscience of the uninformed…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.

Too much knowledge leads to skepticism; early true believers become apostates.
Knowledge 449 But too much knowledge leads to skepticism; early devotees are the likeliest apostates. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Bergson.

We know the world through our ideas.
Knowledge 491 Santayana: It is true that we know the world only through our ideas. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Santayana.

Ignorance is unconsciousness and slavery.
Knowledge 525 Dewey: Ignorance is not bliss, it is unconsciousness and slavery.... Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, John Dewey.

Knowledge means conscious awareness.
Knowledge 9 Ira Wolfert: I use “knowledge” in the dictionary sense of conscious awareness…. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.

Great ideas are not invented; they are discovered.
Knowledge 14 Ira Wolfert: The great ideas have not been invented; they have been discovered. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.

Philosophers, artists and men of religion have only discovered what exists in themselves and assumed that if it exists in themselves, it exists in everyone else.
Knowledge 14 Ira Wolfert: The philosophers, the artists, the men of religion…have invented nothing…only discovered what exists in themselves[;] if it exists in one, it exists in all. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.

You can’t use knowledge if you can’t express it.
Knowledge 53 Johnson: The greatest and most necessary task still remains, to attain a habit of expression, without which knowledge is of little use. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.

The more people grow in knowledge, the more their personalities grow.
Knowledge 618 Johnson: A man always makes himself greater as he increases his knowledge. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.

With greater powers of expression, people gained the power to create poetry and literary art, but they did not achieve peace or beneficence to mankind.
Knowledge 601 [Knowledge] gave the scholar certain powers of expression, the power of speech, the power of poetry, of literary art, but it did not bring him to peace, or to beneficence. Emerson, New England Reformers.

Knowledge is knowing that we are unable to know.
Knowledge 703 Knowledge is the knowing that we can’t know. Emerson, Representative Men: Montaigne, or The Skeptic.

What we know is very little compared to what we don’t know.
Knowledge 27 What we know, is a point to what we do not know. Emerson, Nature.

If knowledge is not applied, it disappears.
Knowledge 131 Ali the Caliph: “If knowledge calleth into practice, well; if not, it goeth away.” Emerson, Method of Nature.

I enjoy doubting as well as knowing.
Knowledge 21 Dante: I love to doubt as well as know. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

People consult me very little, but they believe me even less.
Knowledge 297 I am consulted very little, but I am believed even less. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

The desire for knowledge is natural.
Knowledge 537 There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Knowing that one does not know requires some intelligence.
Knowledge 550 …at least some degree of intelligence is needed for a man to be able to notice that he does not know. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Man can no longer keep track of his achievements.
Knowledge 4 Man has hopelessly surpassed himself…is no longer able to keep track of his own achievements. Feleki. A Random Walk in Science.

Sir Isaac Newton compared his knowledge to playing by the ocean, picking up a shell or two of knowledge but with the whole ocean of truth still to be fathomed.
Knowledge 203 Sir Isaac Newton: I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. A Random Walk in Science.

The more we know the more we need to know.
Knowledge 167 Albert Schweitzer: As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible but more mysterious. Anderson, The Schweitzer Album.

After all his studying, Plato said all he knew was that he knew nothing.
Knowledge 164 I think it was either Plato or Socrates who after all his study and learning professed that all he knew was that he knew nothing. Steele, 5/2/1711. The Spectator.

Man can study a single topic all his life but still not learn all of its qualities.
Knowledge 291 I remember Mr. Boyle, speaking of a certain mineral, tells us, that a man may consume his whole life in the study of it, without arriving at the knowledge of all its qualities. Addison, 6/18/1711. The Spectator.

I suggest we stop learning about many things until we know everything about one form of life.
Knowledge 27 I suggest that we defer further action until we have acquired a really complete set of information concerning at least one living thing...an objective of international, collaborative science to achieve a complete understanding of a single form of life. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.

Knowledge makes us free.
Knowledge and freedom 185 Spinoza: We are free only where we know. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.

We are living in the information age in which we must learn to use and apply it.
Knowledge and information 399 Peter Drucker: We are moving to an information-based economy, in which neither capital, labor, nor raw materials will be as important as knowledge—its use and application. Bradley, Time Present, Time Past.

Science gives us facts, but only philosophy gives us wisdom.
Knowledge and Wisdom xxvii Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy.

I love knowledge and other people are my teachers.
Knowledge teacher 100 Socrates: I am a lover of knowledge...and men are my teachers. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.

The more you know, the less you know. .
Knowledge377 Spencer: There is a story of a Frenchman who, having been three weeks [in England], proposed to write a book on England; who, after three months found that he was not quite ready; and who, after three years, concluded that he knew nothing about it. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.