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Quotes about knowledge

236 quotes from 164 people

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Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Guardian (1713), No. 111
That writer does the most, who gives his reader the most knowledge, and takes from him the least time.
CCCharles Caleb Colton1777–1832Preface
- Writing
No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.
John Steinbeck1902–1968The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Part One, Ch. III
Errors of knowledge are not breaches of morality; no proper moral code can demand infallibility or omniscience.
Ayn Rand1905–1982The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
- Morality
An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject, and how to avoid them.
Werner Heisenberg1901–1976Der Teil und das Ganze. Gespräche im Umkreis der Atomphysik (1969)
And I have written three books on the soul,
Proving absurd all written hitherto,
And putting us to ignorance again.
Robert Browning1812–1889Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Cleon.
- Writing
Scientific knowledge helps us mainly because it makes the wonder to which we are called by nature rather more intelligible.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Maxims and Reflections (1833), Maxim 417, trans. Stopp
- Science
All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.
Swami Vivekananda1863–1902Pearls of Wisdom
You must acquire the best knowledge first, and without delay; it is the height of madness to learn what you will later have to unlearn.
Erasmus1466–1536Letter to Christian Northoff (1497), as translated in Collected Works of Erasmus (1974), p. 114
- Education
This is an era of specialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware of or intolerant of the larger frame into which it fits.
Rachel Carson1907–1964Silent Spring (1962), Chapter 2, Page 13
I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)In context
- Education
I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.
Matthew Arnold1822–1888The Functions of Criticism at the Present Time (1864)
To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit — General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess.
William Blake1757–1827Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses, pp. xvii–xcviii (c. 1798–1809)
- Intelligence
A desire for knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being, whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all he has to get knowledge.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Dr. Johnson’s Table Talk (London: 1807), p. 64
To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is … the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself and enlarges the sphere of existence.
John Quincy Adams1767–1848Report on the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution (c. 1846)
- Education