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Quotes about knowledge

236 quotes from 164 people

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To know how much there is that we do not know, is one of the most valuable parts of our attainments; for such knowledge becomes both a lesson of humility and a stimulus to exertion.
Horace Mann1796–1859Lectures on Education (1855), Lecture 6
The majority of people have no understanding of the things with which they daily meet, nor, when instructed, do they have any right knowledge of them, although to themselves they seem to have.
Heraclitus535–470 BCSource: Clement, Stromates, II, 8, 1
Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvelous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have actually been effected?
Pliny the Elder20–79Naturalis Historia, Book VII, sec. 6.
As knowledge spreads, wealth spreads. To diffuse knowledge is to diffuse wealth. To give all an equal chance to acquire knowledge is the best and surest way to give all an equal chance to acquire property.
Rutherford B. Hayes1822–1893Diary (15 May 1878)
- Money
The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others.
John Locke1632–1704An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), Book IV, Ch. 16, sec. 4
Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor, — all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked, — who is good? not that men are ignorant, — what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.
W. E. B. Du Bois1868–1963The Souls of Black Folk (1903), Ch. XII: Of Alexander CrummellIn context
I don’t know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I cannot know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it.
Albert Camus1913–1960The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), “An Absurd Reasoning”
- Philosophy
Truth cannot be sought; it comes to you. You can go after only what is known. When the mind is not tortured by the known, by the effects of the known, then only can truth reveal itself.
Jiddu Krishnamurti1895–1986First Talk in Rajahmundry (20 November 1949), The Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 5
- Truth & Lies
The greatest forces lie in the region of the uncomprehended.
George MacDonald1824–1905The Fantastic Imagination (1893)
Ignorance and confidence are constant companions.
John McAfee1945–2021Into the Heart of Truth (2001)
- Intelligence
When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well.
Isaac Asimov1920–1992The Roving Mind (1983), Ch. 25
- Wisdom
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
Albert Einstein1879–1955Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931), p. 97
- Ideas
Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge.
George Washington1732–1799George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)
- Education
A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)
- Anti-Religion
We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
Robert Frost1874–1963A Witness Tree (1942), “The Secret Sits”