Quotes About Knowledge

But, for the point of wisdom, I would choose / To know the mind that stirs between the wings / Of bees...

Something he must read, when he was not riding the pony, or running and hunting, or listening to the talk of men... it had already occurred to him that books were stuff, and that life was stupid... knowledge seemed to him a very superficial affair, easily mastered: judging from the conversations of his elders he had apparently got already more than was necessary for mature life.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and appear a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

But something she yearned for by which her life might be filled with action at once rational and ardent; and since the time was gone by for guiding visions and spiritual directors, since prayer heightened yearning but not instruction, what lamp was there but knowledge? Surely learned men kept-the only oil; and who more learned than Mr. Casaubon? Thus

As the stone which has been kicked by generations of clowns may come by curious little links of effect under the eyes of a scholar, through whose labors it may at last fix the date of invasions and unlock religions, so a bit of ink and paper which has long been an innocent wrapping or stop-gap may at last be laid open under the one pair of eyes which have knowledge enough to turn it into the opening of a catastrophe.

I still think that the greater part of the world is mistaken about many things. Surely one may be sane and yet think so, since the greater part of the world has often had to come round from its opinion.

I went into science a great deal myself at one time; but I saw it would not do. It leads to everything; you can let nothing alone.

Mrs. Renfrew, the colonel's widow, was not only unexceptionable in point of breeding, but also interesting on the ground of her complaint, which puzzled the doctors, and seemed clearly a case wherein the fulness of professional knowledge might need the supplement of quackery.

am sure you could teach me a thousand things—as an exquisite bird could teach a bear if there were any common language between them. Happily

cheap inventions where ignorance finds itself able and at ease:

One must use such brains as are to be found

She wished, poor child, to be wise herself.

But it is very difficult to be learned; it seems as if people were worn out on the way to great thoughts, and can never enjoy them because they are too tired.

Who knows that about anybody?

the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.

Stupefaction is not resignation; and it is stupefaction to remain in ignorance,–to shut up all the avenues by which the life of your fellow-men might become known to you.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

for anything he knew his brains lay in small bags at his temples

But to minds strongly marked by the positive and negative qualities that create severity,— strength of will, conscious rectitude of purpose, narrowness of imagination and intellect, great power of self-control, and a disposition to exert control over others,— prejudices come as the natural food of tendencies which can get no sustenance out of that complex, fragmentary, doubt-provoking knowledge which we call truth.

T]he Meyricks, whose various knowledge had been acquired by the irregular foraging to which clever girls have usually been reduced...

Heat is a great agent and a useful word, but considered as a means of explaining the universe it requires an extensive knowledge of differences; and as a means of explaining character sensitiveness is in much the same predicament.

She did not want to deck herself with knowledge—to wear it loose from the nerves and blood that fed her action

Ignorance is not so damnable as humbug; but when it prescribes pills it may happen to do more harm.

It was said of him, that Lydgate could do anything he liked, but he had certainly not yet liked to do anything remarkable. He was a vigorous animal with a ready understanding, but no spark had yet kindled in him an intellectual passion; knowledge seemed to him a very superficial affair, easily mastered: judging from the conversation of his elders, he had apparently got already more than was necessary for mature life.