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Knowledge Quotes

Francis Bacon, Shakespeare, John Locke, Samuel Johnson and Einstein are all near the top, which gives the page its character: mostly people who thought about how we know things, rather than about how to feel clever. Johnson gives the most useful single line, in Boswell’s Life (1791): “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.” Wittgenstein, in On Certainty (1969), says that knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgement.

A lot of the quotes people look for here are flagged. “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing” is credited to Socrates; see the note on the Wisdom page. “Contempt prior to investigation” is credited to Einstein, and a line about putting the Lord at every turn in the refuge of a miracle is credited to Galileo.

Random quote on Knowledge

Most quoted on knowledge:

All things I thought I knew; but now confess
The more I know I know, I know the less.

Robert Owen

If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.

Albert Einstein

Every man naturally desires knowledge; but what good is knowledge without fear of God? Indeed a humble rustic who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars.

Thomas à Kempis

It would be easier to break up a theme of Beethoven with dissecting knife or acid than to break up the soul by methods of abstract thought. Nature-knowledge and man-knowledge have neither ways nor aims in common.

Oswald Spengler

People making bad choices ... and blame but themselves, the beginning reality tv show folks... glad we grew out of that, when you know better, you do better, right?

Oprah Winfrey

Ignorance of each other is what has made unity impossible in the past. Therefore we need enlightenment. We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity. Once we have more knowledge (light) about each other, we will stop condemning each other and a United front will be brought about.

Malcolm X

Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth.

Peter Abelard

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it; this is knowledge.

Confucius

Here saw I a great oneing betwixt Christ and us, to mine understanding: for when He was in pain, we were in pain.

Julian of Norwich

To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner. Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner, put yourself in his place so that you may understand what he understands and the way he understands it.

Søren Kierkegaard

The fear of speculation, the ostensible rush from the theoretical to the practical, brings about the same shallowness in action that it does in knowledge. It is by studying a strictly theoretical philosophy that we become most acquainted with Ideas, and only Ideas provide action with vigour and ethical meaning.

Friedrich Schelling On University Studies (1803)

Sapiens did not forage only for food and materials. They foraged for knowledge as well.

Yuval Noah Harari Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)

I think that asking “what's the point?” when referring to the contents of a study or research project can be indicative of a utilitarian, pragmatic, consumerist mindset. I believe that advanced civilizations should leave room for knowledge as a value in itself.

Paolo Rossi Monti

To know one's ignorance is the best part of knowledge. To be ignorant of such knowledge is a disease. If one only regards it as a disease, he will be cured of it. The wise man is exempt from this disease. He knows it for what it is, and hence is free from it.

Laozi

The general policy of the past has been to drive, but the era of force must give way to that of knowledge, and the policy of the future will be to teach and to lead, to the advantage of all concerned.

Henry Gantt

All definite knowledge — so I should contend — belongs to science; all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science there is a No Man’s Land, exposed to attack by both sides; this No Man’s Land is philosophy.

Bertrand Russell

Let men but think over their infinite expenditure of understanding, time, and means on matters and pursuits of far less use and value; whereof, if but a small part were directed to sound and solid studies, there is no difficulty that might not be overcome.

Francis Bacon Novum Organum (1620)

When I speak of knowledge, as you know, I am speaking of that dark and true depth which understanding serves, waits upon, and makes accessible through language to ourselves and others. It is this depth within each of us that nurtures vision.

Audre Lorde Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

It is the aim of public life to arrange that all forms of power are entrusted, so far as possible, to men who effectively consent to be bound by the obligation towards all human beings which lies upon everyone, and who understand the obligation.

Simone Weil Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation (1943)

Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.

James Mackintosh Vindiciæ Gallicæ (1791)

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