Quotes About Knowledge

Nature has always had more force than education.

The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.

Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.

All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

I hate women because they always know where things are.

It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

The multiplicity of facts and writings is become so great that every thing must soon be reduced to extracts and dictionaries.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

History should be written as philosophy.

What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less in human beings of whom they know nothing.

He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.

The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.

True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.

Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe.

Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.

You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

We are bound first to imform ourselves concerning so great a matter as the revolt of millions of people- what they are struggling for, what they are struggling against, and how the struggle stands- from day to day...as best you can; and second, to spread this knowledge among others, and endeavor to do what little you can to awaken the consciousness and sympathy of others.

Nature is earlier than man, but man is earlier than natural science.