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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:

We're discovering something new about human life on this planet, about what our existence means, and according to the priest, this knowledge will alter human culture dramatically. p. 6

James Redfield The Celestine Prophecy (1993)

The origin of all science is in the desire to know causes; and the origin of all false science and imposture is in the desire to accept false causes rather than none; or, which is the same thing, in the unwillingness to acknowledge our own ignorance.

William Hazlitt

That I should guard for you Isin, and Nibru: let it be my responsibility. My lord should know this!

Ishbi-Erra

So, on beyond Z!
It's high time you were shown
That you really don't know
All there is to be known.

Dr. Seuss On Beyond Zebra! (1955)

It is true that every increase of knowledge may possibly render depravity more depraved, as well as it may increase the strength of virtue. It is in itself only power; and its value depends on its application.

Sydney Smith

I'm not aware of too many things.
I know what I know if you know what I mean.

Edie Brickell Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1988)

Knowledge is the key that unlocks all the doors. You can be green-skinned with yellow polka dots and come from Mars, but if you have knowledge that people need, instead of beating you, they'll beat a path to your door.

Ben Carson Think Big (1996)

Speak little of what you know, and not at all of what you do not know.

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)

Unveiling is the mystical perception of the saint but not through abstract of philosophical knowledge, but it is a vision clothed in form especially human form. It is cognitive but apparitional revealing knowledge through divine light.

Ruzbihan Baqli The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2002)

The rate at which your knowledge will ripen into wisdom depends in considerable part upon your distinguishing what is important and what is relatively unimportant. Some people seem never to know any difference between the footnotes and the headlines.

Benjamin Ide Wheeler

"Is," "is." "is" — the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.

Robert Anton Wilson

The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country.

John Adams A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)

I knew then that they had been men, neither gods nor demons. It is a great knowledge, hard to tell and believe. They were men — they went a dark road, but they were men.

Stephen Vincent Benét By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

Only when I know who I am will I know what is possible.

Ram Dass Be Here Now (1971)

Loud are the bells of Norwich and the people come and go.
Here by the tower of Julian, I tell them what I know.

Sydney Carter Julian of Norwich (1983)

Two things can get people to make efforts: if people want to get something, or if they want to get rid of something. Only, in ordinary conditions, without knowledge, people do not know what they can get rid of or what they can gain.

P. D. Ouspensky The Fourth Way (1958)

This is useful knowledge. With it the blind again see, the lame walk, the ill recover, the insane become sane and the sane become saner. By its use the thousand abilities Man has sought to recover become his once more.

L. Ron Hubbard On Scientology in Scientology: A History Of Man (1952)

I know LSD; I don't need to take it anymore. Maybe when I die, like Aldous Huxley.

Albert Hofmann

The greatest and most valuable resources we have for making crucial decision are knowledge and the amazing brainpower God gave human beings when he created us. That's certainly true for deciding our best response to any risk we ever face.

Ben Carson Take The Risk (2008)

Logical knowledge is indirect and symbolic in its character. It helps us to handle and control the object and its workings.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

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