quotations about knowledge
To know is not to know, unless someone else has known that I know.
LUCILIUS
fragment
I know somewhat too much; and from this knowledge, once one has been infected, there seems to be no recovering.
J. M. COETZEE
Waiting for the Barbarians
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
Ideas and Opinions: Based on Mein Weltbild
Close beside my knowledge lies my black ignorance.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Men are more readily contented with no intellectual light than with a little; and wherever they have been taught to acquire some knowledge in order to please others, they have most generally gone on to acquire more, to please themselves.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
No thief, however skillful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Lost Princess of Oz
Knowledge forbidden?
Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord
Envy them that? Can it be sin to know,
Can it be death? And do they only stand
By ignorance? Is that their happy state,
The proof of their obedience and their faith?
O fair foundation laid whereon to build
Their ruin!
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
Where thou perceivest knowledge, bend the ear of attention and respect;
But yield not further to the teaching, than as thy mind is warranted by reasons.
Better is an obstinant disputant, that yieldeth inch by inch,
Than the shallow traitor to himself, who surrendereth to half an argument.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
Knowledge! What does that mean? Your knowledge is nothing but cowardice. No, really, that's all it is. You just want to put a little wall around infinity. And you're afraid to look on the other side of that wall.
YEVGENY ZAMYATIN
We
Grace is given of God, but knowledge is bought in the market.
ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH
The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich
Those that'll tell don't know, and those that know won't tell.
SPIKE LEE
Do the Right Thing
Ignorance may be bliss, but it certainly is not freedom, except in the minds of those who prefer darkness to light and chains to liberty. The more true information we can acquire, the better for our enfranchisement.
ROBERT HUGH BENSON
Intellectual Slavery
The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.
PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE
letter to his son, Oct. 4, 1746
A society that fears knowledge is a society that fears itself.
BERNARD BECKETT
Genesis
If there is anything for which I would go back to childhood, and live this weary life over again, it is for the burning, exalting, transporting thrill and ecstasy with which the young faculties hold their earliest communion with knowledge.
HORACE MANN
Thoughts
Knowledge is but a painful effort wasted,
A bitter drowning in a bitter sea.
STELLA BENSON
This Is the End
What you know is a club for yourself, and what you don't know is a meat-ax for the other fellow.
GEORGE HORACE LORIMER
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
A baby has brains, but it doesn't know much. Experience is the only thing that brings knowledge, and the longer you are on earth the more experience you are sure to get.
L. FRANK BAUM
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity it is a pre-requisite.
BARACK OBAMA
Address to Joint Session of Congress, Feb. 24, 2009