Quotes About Knowledge

It struck her how often men made conversation by telling you things they thought you ought to know. Which was sometimes useful, except they rarely stopped to find out how much you knew already and sometimes they expected you to listen with wonder to total nonsense.

Fed on a media diet of really bad news, we live in a perpetual state of repressed panic. We are paralyzed by bad knowledge, from which the only escape is playing dumb. Ignorance becomes empowering because it enables people to live. Stupidity becomes proactive, a political statement. Our collective norm.

Ignorance." In this root sense, ignorance is an act of will, a choice that one makes over and over again, especially when information overwhelms and knowledge has become synonymous with impotence.

In this root sense, ignorance is an act of will, a choice that one makes over and over again, especially when information overwhelms and knowledge has become synonymous with impotence.

Pro captu lectoris) habent sua fata libelli. (According to the capabilities of the reader) books have their own destinies. —Walter Benjamin, "Unpacking My Library

I would like to think of my 'ignorance' less as a personal failing and more as a massive cultural trend, an example of doubling, of psychic numbing, that characterizes the end of the millennium. If we can't act on knowledge, then we can't survive without ignorance.

we must keep up our studies even as civilization collapses around us.

Does the half-life of information correlate with the decay of our attention?

Information is a lot like water; it's hard to hold on to, and hard to keep from leaking away.

Information like this had a life of its own, and once it entered her mind, she couldn't unknow or forget it.

What is the half-life of information?

root sense, ignorance is an act of will, a choice that one makes over and over again, especially when information overwhelms and knowledge has become synonymous with impotence.

If we can't act on knowledge, then we can't survive without ignorance. So we cultivate the ignorance, go to great lengths to celebrate it, even.

I felt it wouldn't kill me to learn something before I died

She knew so much about what was happening in the world, even as she grew more isolated from it.

I thought I understood everything about cruelty, but it turns out, I didn't understand anything at all.

Oh, but wait. It just occurred to me, maybe you don't actually know their secrets? I kind of assumed that books know everything, but maybe you're a stupid book, or a lazy book, the kind that starts in the middle because you don't know how a story begins and can't be bothered to figure it out.

Never be afraid of not knowing, young man. Not knowing is ze practice of poets and sages.

I can tell you, she really knows her job. So do boa constrictors, said Audrey.

You have to watch your step with women these days, Pops. She could be involved with Yakuza or something. Even some of the girls in my class -- you should hear the stuff they talk about. Fifteen years old, and there's nothing they don't know. We're not in the age of Peace and Love anymore.

Self-esteem isn't an emotion. Self-esteem is just self-knowledge, a solid understanding of your limitations. It's living according to your own standards.

Es más útil entrar en un museo que hablar con cien políticos profesionales

Sí, el mundo enseña humildad. Pues regresé de aquel viaje con el sentimiento de vergüenza por mi falta de conocimientos, por la insuficiencia de mis lecturas, por mi ignorancia. Aprendí que una cultura distinta no nos desvelaría sus secretos tan sólo porque así se lo ordenásemos y que antes de encontrarnos con ella era necesario pasar por una larga y sólida preparación.

To understand our world, we must use a revolving globe and look at the earth from various vantage points.