Quotes About Knowledge

You are labelling pieces of the world with words, then confusing your word-hoard for the totality of life.

The One who ruled from the Beginning had twelve names: first Allfather, second Lord of Hosts, third Lord of the Spear, fourth Smiter, then All-Knowing, Fulfiller of Wishes, Farspoken, Shaker, Burner, Destroyer, Protector and Gelding. I know the significance of each of those names and each one takes a lifetime to tell. You shall learn them all.

If you don't know the difference between theology and religious studies, then you're a theologian.

In science, there are no universal truths, just views of the world that have yet to be shown to be false.

The practice of science happens at the border between the known and the unknown. Standing on the shoulders of giants, we peer into the darkness with eyes opened not in fear but in wonder.

One of the great joys of science is to understand something for the first time–to really understand, which is very different from, and far more satisfying than, knowing the facts.

The current worldview is never claimed to be correct, in the very important sense that there are no absolute truths in science. The body of scientific knowledge at any point in history, including now, is simply the collection of theories and views of the world that have not yet been shown to be wrong.

Science is most definitely not a priesthood where people stand on a mountain and pass truths down to the waiting minions below.

questions by doing science. We will observe, measure and think. One of the great joys of science is to understand something for the first time–to really understand, which is very different from, and far more satisfying than, knowing the facts.

I deliberately borrow from Shakespeare; the most precious objects on Earth are not gems or jewels, but ink marks on paper. No single human brain could conceive of Hamlet, Principia Mathematica or Codex Leicester; they were created by and belong to the entire human race, and the library of wonders continues to grow.

There are too many people in this world who want to be right, and too few who just want to know.

I don't need answers to everything. I want to have answers to find.

That dizzying feeling of confusion, if (hopefully) followed by an epiphany of clarity, is the joy of science. If the reader is feeling the former, we hope to deliver the latter by the end of the book.

Sometimes you recognize that there is a category of human experience that has not been identified but everyone knows about it. That is when I find a term to describe it.

Truth cannot be imparted," said Kline. "It must be inflicted.

Curiosity is a terrible thing, he was thinking. How is it possible to stop oneself from needing to know?

There has, I fear, developed the worst of needs, the need to know, coupled reluctantly with an awareness that I probably will, in fact, never know.

What was the truth? he wondered. How important was it to know? And once he knew, what then?

At times, I become confused about the order in which things should be told. Parts of me know things that other parts do not, and sometimes I both know a thing and do not know it, or part of me knows something is true and another part knows it is not true, and there is nothing to allow me to negotiate between the two.

With age does not come wisdom

I remember things that I know are false, and I forget things that I know really happened.

she was five years old and got her first library card, which to a bookish little girl was like a religious experience.

They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, "You are gods [elohim] sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince." Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!

Sometimes nature guards her secrets with the unbreakable grip of physical law. Sometimes the true nature of reality beckons from just beyond the horizon.