Quotes About Knowledge

What we discover in nature is not really a matter of what exists; what we find is determined by our ability to understand.

Geometry exists as an innate phenomenon in our consciousness. In the external world a perfectly formed snow crystal would never exist. But in our consciousness lies the glittering and flawless knowledge of perfect ice.

First there is simply irritation at the whole impractical situation. Then there is the feeling that always comes over me at the mere thought of that book: veneration. The knowledge that it is the foundation, the boundary. That if you work your way backwards, past Lobachevsky and Newton and as far back as you can go, you end up at Euclid.

Bertrand Russell wrote that pure mathematics is the field in which we don't know what we're talking about or to what extent what we say is true or false.

in our consciousness lies the glittering and flawless knowledge of perfect ice.

Meine Wissenschaft gibt mir Wachträume, die andere nicht einmal im Schlafen haben." Peter Handke: Langsame Heimkehr. Erzählung. Frankfurt am Main 1994, S. 63.

Everyone, it seemed to me, ought to know about Lincoln Steffens.

But I should have known.

He's a cocky SOB. He knew the Nick Adams Stories. Probably a frustrated English major who graduated from college qualified to drive a cab.

In the World According to Celine and Pete the very best part of every town was the library.

I realized that as a thinking person his advantage lay precisely in his lack of formal education. Nobody told him what to think, and thus he was free to think clearly.

Everything still revolves around memorization and repetition, the old cornerstones of Chinese education.

By...handing children the fruit of the tree of knowledge unmediated by adult wisdom, we have abandoned our young to powers and influences which we cannot control, and whose strength we do not know. To leave a child unsupervised in front of a television set is no less dangerous than giving it neat gin, or putting it within reach of narcotics.

Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think?

Proper education is a fundamentally conservative activity, based on the assumption that a body of knowledge exists, is in the hands of the adult and educated, and can be passed on in measurable ways, by disciplined learning reinforced with authority.

Back then I could not understand one word of what I read. Reading did, however, give me heart. Even if you cannot understand what you are reading you can get something from books.

Always consider the qualifications of anyone who assumes or professes authority, what do they really know? Authorities on spirituality can rarely give a half coherent explanation of what they persuade us to believe they know. They achieve authority by stage management and then exploit audience suggestibility. Same old trick they have pulled for thousands of years.

No technical skill is worth more than knowing how to select exciting research projects. Regrettably, this vital ability is almost never taught.

He had been looking forward to a further insight into the life of this woman he was so deeply in love with and still knew so little about.

Know the definition of a pessimist?' Branson shook his head. 'It's an optimist with experience.

I've always shied away from conventional wisdom, though I know the power of it.

What makes a good teacher today is what has always made a good teacher: command of a subject, a critical mind, a demanding nature, and an ability to inspire students to pursue knowledge for some end beyond mere financial rewards. A good teacher might be entertaining and funny, but shouldn't set out to be. A good teacher may have broad experience with and skills using technology, but the mere possession of such experience and skills doesn't make one a good teacher.

Perhaps the simplest way of describing the situation would be to say that, two and a half thousand years ago in the West, we were given a gift — and in our childishness we threw away the instructions for how to use it. We felt we knew what we were playing with. And, as a result, western civilization may soon be nothing but an experiment that failed.

Tiene mérito: hemos conseguido crear la ilusión de que somos más sabios que las gentes de tiempos anteriores