Quotes About Knowledge

They would understand the fundamental laws of the universe before they had even the slightest handle on society.

Life itself is a moment like this, the soul beat down and held to knowledge: you keep on trudging upward, the goal shifts in and out of sight, always further away than you expected, and the work is hard and unremitting. And the questions are the same as always: What are you doing? Is it the right thing? Should you go back? — Nothing up here but the same answers, stripped bare of all complication: Just walk. Keep hiking. That's all you can do. That is your destiny.

We are always more confident of our reasoning than we should be. Indeed overconfidence, not just expert overconfidence but general overconfidence, is one of the most common illusions we experience. No doubt this analysis is yet another example: do we really know any of this?

Most of [the alchemists] were poor; many all but unknown in their own time, many died and saw no fruit of their labours… Of some the very names are forgotten. But though their names be dead, their works live, and grow and spread over ever fresh generations of youth, showing them fresh steps towards that temple of wisdom which is the knowledge of things as they are.

education is one thing and instruction, however worthy, necessary and incidentally or monetarily educative, another.

Caltech is a wonderful place. Named the top university in the world by the Times of London in each of the last three years, it is small enough—just 300 professors, 1000 undergrads, and 1200 graduate students—that I know Caltech experts in all branches of science. It was

Life teaches me a hundred things every day, and I forget ninety-nine of them, sometimes all hundred of them.

What does the world know? Nothing! You simply get used to something, you accept it and acknowledge it, because your teacher has acknowledged it before you; everything is just a supposition—indeed, even time, space, motion, matter are suppositions. The world knows nothing, it merely accepts things…

Hun var ikke fordærvet og han elsket hende Herrens meget; men hvad hjalp det? Gå hele livet og vite alt!

Det var en glad Dag før ham, han hadde ikke rikere Glæder end naar han kunde gjøre godt på denne Maate og hævde Lærdommens og Bokens Overlegenhet, det var hans Levebrød og hans Lidenskap. En Lidenskap skal Mennesket ha, somme trodser Ild og Vand for at faa bøie Verber.

han hadde studeret det herlig ut av kokeboken, men også spurt sig for hos de handelsreisende.

God preserve me from growing wise! Yes, I intend to mumble toothlessly to my deathbed bystanders: God preserve me from growing wise!

Resistance to innovation is clearly demonstrated, not by the ignorant masses, but by professionals with a vested interest in tradition and the monopoly of learning.

Wenn du weißt, behaupte, dass du es weißt. Und wenn du etwas nicht weißt, gib zu, dass du es nicht weißt. Das ist Wissen.

Lernen und nicht denken ist nichtig, denken und nicht lernen ist ermüdend.

Wenn man noch nicht das Leben kennt, wie sollte man den Tod kennen.

Wo ein Gebildeter weilt, kann keine Rohheit aufkommen.

No existe ningún buen biólogo, cuyos trabajos fueran coronados por el éxito, que no haya sido llevado hacia su profesión por aquel placer interior que deriva de contemplar las bellezas de las criaturas vivas, y que al mismo tiempo no sienta aumentar su placer en la Naturaleza y en el trabajo, a medida que se amplían sus conocimientos profesionales.

The greatest wisdom is to realize one's lack of it.

Chris] gave his life in exchange for knowledge and his story is his contribution to the world. I feel complete now to put this story behind me as it was on my mind for quite some time.

Obviously, you don't know this, Empress, but you ride with the very one who killed you in the last game! He's played you false! Nope, I knew. He decapitated me. Blah.

I want Holly to experience life. To take away the blinders she has so assiduously relied on. I think you're just the type of person to show her what she doesn't know and doesn't want to know. My niece is innocent in so many ways, and there comes a time in a woman's life when innocence is merely a euphemism for ignorance.

Love spells are a lot like platform diving. Once you start the process, there's no going back, and the end will be fugly if you don't know what the hell you're doing. —Mariketa the Awaited Mercenary of the Wiccae, Future Leader of the House of Witches

Bringing it, Nïx the Ever-Knowing, Soothsayer Without Equal, General of the New Army of Vertas.