Quotes About Knowledge

Yes, it is indeed by way of the mathematical forms that the physicist gains knowledge of the external world; Eddington's point, however, is that the forms in question have been artificially imposed: "The mathematics is not there until we put it there." And it is for this reason, and in this sense, that our knowledge of mathematical structures—our knowledge of the physical world!—is said to be subjective.

The so-called physical universe—"the world so described"—turns out to be constituted by mathematical structures which we ourselves have imposed; in a word, it proves to be "man-made." Yet this way of putting it is also misleading; for inasmuch as physical knowledge is partly objective, "the world so described" must be "partly objective" as well. One is left with a curiously equivocal conception, which may enlighten the wise but is bound to deceive the unwary

Descartes himself, as one will recall, experienced great difficulty in overcoming his celebrated doubts, and was able to do so only by way of a tortuous argument which few today would find convincing. Is it not strange that tough-minded scientists should have so readily, and for so long, espoused a rationalist doctrine which calls in question the very possibility of empirical knowledge?

What saves the day for physics ... is the fact that the experimentalist does not accept the Cartesian philosophy, which is to say that he treats his apparatus not as a mathematical structure, but as a perceivable object. Even as there are said to be 'no atheists in the trenches', so indeed there are no bifurcationists in the laboratory. All knowledge of the external world begins in the perceptible realm: deny the perceptible object, and nothing external remains.

No student knows his subject: the most he knows is where and how to find out the things he does not know

I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.

A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.

You devour a book meant to be read, not because you would fill yourself or have an anxious care to be nourished, but because it contains such stuff as it makes the mind hungry to look upon.

we read, if we have the true reader's zest and plate, not to grow more knowing, but to be less pent up and bound within a little circle,—as those who take their pleasure, and not as those who laboriously seek instruction,—as a means of seeing and enjoying the world of men and affairs.

How is the schoolmaster, the nation, to know which boy needs the whipping?

You devour a book meant to be read, not because you would fill yourself or have an anxious care to be nourished, but because it contains such stuff

He is not a true man of the world who knows only the present fashions of it.

Can we actually "know" the universe? My God, it's hard enough finding your way around in Chinatown.

Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.

Science appears but what in truth she is, Not as our glory and our absolute boast, But as a succedaneum, and a prop To our infirmity

What made me happiest was using what I'd learned to do something of value to society.

Education is like a double-edged sword. It may be turned to dangerous uses if it is not properly handled.

All my life I have been surrounded by things I'd rather not know too much about, so I have come to feel that truth made naked without purpose is really a wanton.

In learning about a person, you learn something about the world and about yourself, and if you can handle what you learn, you can get closer, much closer to them.

The Truth is Out there

Toda ciencia nace, naturalmente, de una concertación del pensamiento. Pero esta concentración tiene un carácter muy especial en la ciencia: es la atención a la vida, a sus necesidades.

Geometry is one of the handles of science and philosophy.

It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.

No human being will ever know the Truth, for even if they happen to say it by chance, they would not even known they had done so.