Quotes About Knowledge

In America you can be armed, just not with the facts.

If we are humble, we are open to new ideas and new ways of seeing things. Open-mindedness is a very important part of humility. We don't know it all. There is still more we can learn. And maybe even more important, some we need to unlearn.

Why waste time learning when ignorance is instantaneous. ---Hobbes

Ms. Wormwood: Calvin, can you tell us what Lewis and Clark did? Calvin: No, but I can recite the secret superhero origin of each member of Captain Napalm's Thermonuclear League of Liberty. Ms. Wormwood: See me after class, Calvin. Calvin: [retrospectively] I'm not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.

I'm not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.

That's the whole problem with science. You've got a bunch of empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder.

Calvin: The more you know, the harder it is to take decisive action. Once you are informed, you start seeing complexities and shades of gray. You realize nothing is as clear as it first appears. Ultimately, knowledge is paralyzing. Being a man of action, I cannot afford to take that risk. Hobbes: You're ignorant, but at least you act on it.

Miss Wormwood: Calvin, your test was an absolute disgrace! It's obvious you haven't read any of the material. Our first president was not Chef Boy-Ar-Dee and you ought to be ashamed to have turned in such preposterous answers! Calvin: I just don't test well.

It's going to be a grim day when the world is run by a generation that doesn't know anything but what it's seen on TV.

Calvin: As you can see, I have memorized this utterly useless piece of information long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You've taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations.

I'm a man of few words. If you read more, you might have a larger vocabulary.

Calvin: I'm being educated against my will! My rights are being trampled! Hobbes: Is it a right to remain ignorant? Calvin: I don't know, but I refuse to find out!

Mom says death is as natural as birth, and it's all part of the life cycle. She says we don't really understand it, but there are many things we don't understand, and we just have to do the best we can with the knowledge we have. I guess that makes sense.

CALVIN: Our country was founded a very long time ago, roughly around 200 B.C. TEACHER: (Glowering): 200 B.C.? CALVIN: Before Calvin. CALVIN: (Now sitting in the corner, wearing a dunce cap) That's what's IMPORTANT!

Calvin: «Mom says death is as natural as birth, and it's all part of the life cycle. She says we don't really understand it, but there are many things we don't understand, and we just have to do the best we can with the knowledge we have. I guess that makes sense. ...But don't you go anywhere.» Hobbes: «Don't worry.»

Great teams cross-train and never have to hear, 'I don't know how to do that.

Acquiring true wisdom is always a greater burden than transient pain.

After all, is a gentleman's library of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves anything more than a vanity?

People who think they know everything really annoy those of us who know we don't.

Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapour, a drop of water is enough to kill him. but even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows none of this.

The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.

Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it.

Those honor nature well, who teach that she can speak on everything.

Since we cannot know all there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.