Quotes About Knowledge

Which goes to show an appreciation of history can be very helpful in day-to-day living.

At least for most people. The way I'm wired I remember pretty much everything as it actually happened

For DeHaven it was well worth the extra money to a federal budget that had always allocated more to war than it ever did to peaceful purposes. For a fraction of the cost of one missile he could purchase on the open market every work the library needed to round out its rare books collection. Yet politicians believed that missiles kept you safe, whereas actually books did, and for a simple reason. Ignorance caused wars, and people who read widely were seldom ignorant.

Books were meant to be read, not displayed on a shelf for decoration.

Because our current educational system now graduates students lacking even minimal historical knowledge, citizens are misled by outlandish charges Modernists make about not only Jefferson but also other Founders as well as traditionally venerated historical events. If rudimentary historical literacy is to be achieved today, it must be individually secured, for it is no longer possible to rely on public schools (and even many private schools) for this once elementary knowledge

The fatal conceit of intellectuals, he said, is to think that smart people can design an economy or a society better than the apparently chaotic interactions of millions of people. Such intellectuals fail to realize how much they don't know or how a market makes use of all the localized knowledge each of us possesses.

Although our modern way of thinking has, of course, changed a great deal relative to the ancient one, the two have had one key feature in common: i.e. they are both generally 'blinkered' by the notion that theories give true knowledge about 'reality as it is'. Thus, both are led to confuse the forms and shapes induced in our perceptions by theoretical insight with a reality independent of our thought and our way of looking.

So, we see that the ground of intelligence must be in the undetermined and unknown flux, that is also the ground of all definable forms of matter. Intelligence is thus not deducible or explainable on the basis of any branch of knowledge (e.g. physics or biology). Its origin is deeper and more inward than any knowable order that could describe it. (Indeed, it has to comprehend the very order of definable forms of matter through which we would hope to comprehend intelligence.

We can refer to this one process as experience-knowledge (the hyphen indicating that these are two inseparable aspects of one whole movement).

In a way, techniques of meditation can be looked on as measures which are taken by man to try to reach the immeasurable, i.e., a state of mind in which he ceases to sense a separation between himself and the whole of reality. But clearly, there is a contradiction in such a notion, for the immeasurable is, if anything, just that which cannot be brought within the limits determined by man's knowledge and reason.

Even in science to raise fundamental questions can be very disturbing. Somebody could feel, 'I'd like to have the answer to this right away, and get out of this unpleasant state of disturbance', and he would never get anywhere.

We can't just accept it – we must doubt it. For by doubting we come to inquiry, and from inquiry we come to the truth.

If facts are inconvenient, well, damn those who live and work with facts.

When most of the people who know the most about a subject are seen to agree, despite their competitiveness, then it's generally wise for policy to begin by paying heed to expert advice.

all facts are created equal.

Give up," they preached. "Don't bother trying to figure out how the flawed world works. Perfect knowledge is to be found only within the mind, the soul. Seek your own private salvation then, apart from the world, and don't bother getting your hands dirty trying to piece together the nuts and bolts of God's handiwork.

I may not ever be able to be certain what is absolutely True... but I sure as heck can work to find out what isn't true!  Moreover, I can improve my model of the world, by slowly, carefully finding out what is truer than what I already know.

I had thought that the magic of the information age was that it allowed us to know more, but then I realized the magic of the information age is that it allows us to know less. It provides us with external cognitive servants-silicon memory systems, collaborative online filters, consumer preference algorithms and networked knowledge. We can burden these servants and liberate ourselves.

It wasn't that I wanted to be a writer; I just didn't want to be stupid.

Knowledge is like a sphere; the greater its volume, the larger its contact with the unknown.

All knowledge systems, from modern science to those embedded in the most ancient of creation myths, can be thought of as maps of reality. They are never just true or false. Perfect descriptions of reality are unattainable, unnecessary, and too costly for learning organisms, including humans.

Human knowledge, by its nature, has limits, so some questions must remain mysteries. Some religions treat such mysteries as secrets that the gods choose to hide from humans; others, such as Buddhism, treat them as ultimate riddles that are not worth pursuing.

As Seth Lloyd puts it: "To do anything requires energy. To specify what is done requires information."3

Refer to Table 3–1 over and over again as you learn about the various methods for mood modification. When you become familiar with these ten forms of distortion, you will benefit from this knowledge all your life.