Knowledge Quotes

Most popular knowledge quotes

Real knowledge goes into natural man in titbits. A scrap here, a scrap there; always pertinent, linked to safety, or nutrition or pleasure. - Ezra Pound quote.
Real knowledge goes into natural man in titbits. A scrap here, a scrap there; always pertinent, linked to safety, or nutrition or pleasure.

discovery

As for me, all I know is nothing. - Socrates quote.
As for me, all I know is nothing.
Knowledge is the distilled essence of our intuitions, corroborated by experience. - Elbert Hubbard quote.
Knowledge is the distilled essence of our intuitions, corroborated by experience.

experience intuition

As knowledge increases, wonder deepens.

for teachers

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. - Socrates quote.
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

ignorance good and evil

Knowledge is the food of the soul. - Plato quote.
Knowledge is the food of the soul.
All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions. - Leonardo da Vinci quote.
All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.

perception

It is knowledge that ultimately gives salvation. - Mahatma Gandhi quote.
It is knowledge that ultimately gives salvation.
The first step to knowledge is to know that we are ignorant. As for me, all I know is that I know nothing. - Socrates quote.
The first step to knowledge is to know that we are ignorant. As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? - Thomas Huxley quote.
If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?
To be proud of knowledge is to be blind with light.
Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. - Plato quote.
Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it. - Thomas Fuller quote.
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.
One that knoweth all that may be known is as a God among people. - Pythagoras quote.
One that knoweth all that may be known is as a God among people.
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. - Confucius quote.
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

knowledge and ignorance

Tim was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages: so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on. - Benjamin Franklin quote.
Tim was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages: so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on.
The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet. - Lord Chesterfield quote.
The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.

experience

The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds. - John F. Kennedy quote.
The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

ignorance

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.

wisdom

If you have enough sense to become a mental adult yourself, you can run rings around people smarter than you. Just pick up key ideas from all the disciplines, not just a few, and you're immensely wiser than they are. - Charlie Munger quote.
If you have enough sense to become a mental adult yourself, you can run rings around people smarter than you. Just pick up key ideas from all the disciplines, not just a few, and you're immensely wiser than they are.

intelligence

Acknowledging what you don't know is the dawning of wisdom. - Charlie Munger quote.
Acknowledging what you don't know is the dawning of wisdom.

wisdom

All knowledge is spendable currency depending upon the market. - Maya Angelou quote.
All knowledge is spendable currency depending upon the market.
Science at best is not wisdom; it is knowledge. Wisdom is knowledge tempered with judgment.

judgment wisdom science

There is a great difference between knowing a thing and understanding it.

understanding

The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the ocean was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. - Daniel J. Boorstin quote.
The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the ocean was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.

ignorance

Ignorance is bold, and knowledge reserved. - Thucydides quote.
Ignorance is bold, and knowledge reserved.

ignorance

The trouble with most folks isn't so much their ignorance, as knowing so many things that ain't so. - Josh Billings quote.
The trouble with most folks isn't so much their ignorance, as knowing so many things that ain't so.

ignorance

Knowledge cannot make us all leaders, but it can help us decide which leader to follow.
— Management Digest

leadership

It is easy enough to hold an opinion, but hard work to actually know what one is talking about.
— The Public Years

opinions

Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you; you must acquire it.

curiosity

Often it is our own knowledge that is the biggest obstacle to us touching suchness [reality]. That is why it's very important to learn how to release our own views. Knowledge is the obstacle to knowledge. If you are dogmatic in your way of thinking, it is very difficult to receive new insights, to conceive of new theories and understandings about the world. - Thích Nhất Hạnh quote.
Often it is our own knowledge that is the biggest obstacle to us touching suchness [reality]. That is why it's very important to learn how to release our own views. Knowledge is the obstacle to knowledge. If you are dogmatic in your way of thinking, it is very difficult to receive new insights, to conceive of new theories and understandings about the world.

open-mindedness buddhist

Knowledge is love and light and vision. - Helen Keller quote.
Knowledge is love and light and vision.
If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. - Henry Ford quote.
If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

experience money ability

Reality is nothing but a collective hunch. - Lily Tomlin quote.
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.

reality

You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. - William Blake quote.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.

excess

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. - Bertrand Russell quote.
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

compassion charity love philosophers

Knowledge itself is power. - Francis Bacon quote.
Knowledge itself is power.
In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance. - Henry Miller quote.
In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. - Samuel Johnson quote.
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

integrity

Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns.
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quote.
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.
Just in ratio as knowledge increases, faith diminishes. - Thomas Carlyle quote.
Just in ratio as knowledge increases, faith diminishes.
The acquisition of knowledge is the mission of research, the transmission of knowledge is the mission of teaching, and the application of knowledge is the mission of public service.

the public

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous. - Margot Fonteyn quote.
The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. - Samuel Johnson quote.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool; avoid him. 
He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a student; teach him. 
He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep; wake him. 
He who knows and knows that he knows is a wise man; follow him.

proverbs

Not to know is bad but not to wish to know is worse.
— African proverb

proverbs African proverbs

Wisdom is greater than knowledge, for wisdom includes knowledge and the due use of it.

wisdom

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.
OMNISCIENCE

Knowing what
thou knowest not
is in a sense
omniscience.

interesting

Action is the proper fruit of knowledge.

proverbs action

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle. - Kahlil Gibran quote.
A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

action

The greatest weapons in the conquest of knowledge are an understanding mind and the inexorable curiosity that drives it on. - Isaac Asimov quote.
The greatest weapons in the conquest of knowledge are an understanding mind and the inexorable curiosity that drives it on.

curiosity

Sin, guilt, neurosis—they are one and the same, the fruit of the tree of knowledge. - Henry Miller quote.
Sin, guilt, neurosis—they are one and the same, the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

neurotics sin guilt

Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment the treasurer, of a wise man.

judgment

Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another. - Joseph Addison quote.
Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.
For also knowledge itself is power. - Francis Bacon quote.
For also knowledge itself is power.

power

Knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him swell. - Francis Bacon quote.
Knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him swell.
Many men are stored full of unused knowledge.  Like loaded guns that are never fired off, or military magazines in times of peace, they are stuffed with useless ammunition. - Henry Ward Beecher quote.
Many men are stored full of unused knowledge.  Like loaded guns that are never fired off, or military magazines in times of peace, they are stuffed with useless ammunition.

proverbs

The fact that knowledge endlessly recedes as the investigator is about to grasp it is what constitutes at the same time his torment and happiness. - Claude Bernard quote.
The fact that knowledge endlessly recedes as the investigator is about to grasp it is what constitutes at the same time his torment and happiness.
Knowledge is like money, the more a man gits the more he hankers for. - Josh Billings quote.
Knowledge is like money, the more a man gits the more he hankers for.
Like many features of a landscape, knowledge looks different from different angles.
Human knowledge is personal and responsible, an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. - Jacob Bronowski quote.
Human knowledge is personal and responsible, an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.

uncertainty

A single hour in the day, steadily given to the study of an interesting subject, brings unexpected accumulations of knowledge. - William Ellery Channing quote.
A single hour in the day, steadily given to the study of an interesting subject, brings unexpected accumulations of knowledge.
Knowledge will...appear in turn the merest ignorance to those who come after us.  Yet it is not to be despised, since by it we reach up groping fingers to touch the hem of the garment of the Most High.
The well-marked path to knowledge is open to anyone willing to make the effort to follow it, though no one will ever quite reach its end.
The fruits of the tree of Knowledge are various; he must be strong indeed who can digest all of them.
Knowledge is a plant of slow growth.
Thomas Cooper The Introductory Lecture of Thomas Cooper, Esq.
All our knowledge originates in opinion. - Leonardo da Vinci quote.
All our knowledge originates in opinion.
The more we know, the better we realize that our knowledge is a little island in the midst of an ocean of ignorance.

knowledge and ignorance

Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle quote.
Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.
Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be. - Albert Einstein quote.
Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.
Knowledge is Life with wings. - Kahlil Gibran quote.
Knowledge is Life with wings.
The grain of real knowledge is concealed in a vast deal of esoteric chaff.
Every judgment teeters on the brink of error.  To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous.  Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. - Frank Herbert quote.
Every judgment teeters on the brink of error.  To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous.  Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.
This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge, but no power. - Herodotus quote.
This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge, but no power.

power

Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. quote.
Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned.
The air we breathe is made up of four elements, at least: oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid gas, and knowledge. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. quote.
The air we breathe is made up of four elements, at least: oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid gas, and knowledge.
The aim is to bite good and hard on the fruit of the tree of knowledge. - Fred Hoyle quote.
The aim is to bite good and hard on the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Knowledge stirs the imagination, drives away the nightmares of superstition. - Edwin Hubble quote.
Knowledge stirs the imagination, drives away the nightmares of superstition.
The fruit of the tree of knowledge always drives man from some paradise or another. - William Ralph Inge quote.
The fruit of the tree of knowledge always drives man from some paradise or another.
The pursuit of knowledge is an intoxicant, a lure that scientists and explorers have known from ancient times; indeed, exhilaration in the pursuit of knowledge is part of what has kept our species so adaptive.
Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.  The master of mechanics laughs at strength. - Samuel Johnson quote.
Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.  The master of mechanics laughs at strength.
Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge—broad, deep knowledge—is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low. - Helen Keller quote.
Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge—broad, deep knowledge—is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low.
We can add to our knowledge, but we cannot subtract from it. - Arthur Koestler quote.
We can add to our knowledge, but we cannot subtract from it.
Arthur Koestler The Sleep Walkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe
Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value. - Louis L'Amour quote.
Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.
If we would have new knowledge, we must get us a whole world of new questions. - Susanne K. Langer quote.
If we would have new knowledge, we must get us a whole world of new questions.

asking questions

Human knowledge behaves like a growing sphere; the more it expands, the more points of its surface touch the unknown.
Willy Ley The Lungfish, the Dodo, and the Unicorn: An Excursion Into Romantic Zoology
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it. - John Locke quote.
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
John Locke Some Thoughts Concerning Education
I made the journey to knowledge like dogs who go for walks with their masters, a hundred times forward and backward over the same territory; and when I arrived I was tired. - G. C. Lichtenberg quote.
I made the journey to knowledge like dogs who go for walks with their masters, a hundred times forward and backward over the same territory; and when I arrived I was tired.

philosophers

Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps. - Lord Macaulay quote.
Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps.
In expanding the field of knowledge, we but increase the horizon of ignorance.

knowledge and ignorance

Knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. - Louis Pasteur quote.
Knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.
Imparting knowledge is only lighting other men's candles at our lamp, without depriving ourselves of any flame. - Jane Porter quote.
Imparting knowledge is only lighting other men's candles at our lamp, without depriving ourselves of any flame.
Jane Porter Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney, With Remarks by Miss Porter
When knowledge comes in at the door, fear and superstition fly out of the window. - Mary Roberts Rinehart quote.
When knowledge comes in at the door, fear and superstition fly out of the window.
The struggling for knowledge hath a pleasure in it like that of wrestling with a fine woman. - George Savile quote.
The struggling for knowledge hath a pleasure in it like that of wrestling with a fine woman.
George Savile Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections
The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. - Ralph W. Sockman quote.
The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.
Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for us in advanced age.  If we do not plant it while young, it will give us no shade when we grow old. - Lord Chesterfield quote.
Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for us in advanced age.  If we do not plant it while young, it will give us no shade when we grow old.
Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value; but it will never be worn, nor shine, if it is not polished.
Desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. - Laurence Sterne quote.
Desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.
Knowledge is the most democratic source of power. - Alvin Toffler quote.
Knowledge is the most democratic source of power.
Alvin Toffler Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century

power

An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge. - John Wesley quote.
An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.

love

Knowledge is a potent and subtle distillation of experience, a rare liquor, and it belongs to the person who has the power to see, think, feel, taste, smell, and observe for himself, and who has hunger for it. - Thomas Wolfe quote.
Knowledge is a potent and subtle distillation of experience, a rare liquor, and it belongs to the person who has the power to see, think, feel, taste, smell, and observe for himself, and who has hunger for it.
Specific knowledge is knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you. - Naval Ravikant quote.
Specific knowledge is knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.
"First-hand knowledge is critical" is the sort of advice that would have prevented Steve Jobs from creating Apple, prevented me from creating Dilbert, and prevented Musk from creating any of his businesses. Better: "First-hand knowledge can be a mental prison." - Scott Adams quote.
"First-hand knowledge is critical" is the sort of advice that would have prevented Steve Jobs from creating Apple, prevented me from creating Dilbert, and prevented Musk from creating any of his businesses. Better: "First-hand knowledge can be a mental prison."

entrepreneurship startup

The only source of knowledge is experience. - Albert Einstein quote.
The only source of knowledge is experience.

experience

Knowledge is only one half. Faith is the other. - Novalis quote.
Knowledge is only one half. Faith is the other.

faith

A belief in hell and the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumour. - Aldous Huxley quote.
A belief in hell and the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumour.

death

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers. - Plato quote.
A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

decision-making

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again. - Vincent van Gogh quote.
Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

mistakes

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way. - Thomas Jefferson quote.
I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. - William Shakespeare quote.
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

ignorance

Intuition and concepts constitute ... the elements of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge. - Immanuel Kant quote.
Intuition and concepts constitute ... the elements of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge.

intuition

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters. - Friedrich Nietzsche quote.
It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

truth

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous. - Plato quote.
Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.
Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes. - Peter Drucker quote.
Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.
Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.
Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. - John Adams quote.
Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people. - John Adams quote.
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned. - Franklin D. Roosevelt quote.
No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.

education

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind. - Friedrich Nietzsche quote.
Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.
The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. - Benjamin Franklin quote.
The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.
The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends. - Friedrich Nietzsche quote.
The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find any foot-hold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism. - Albert Camus quote.
The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find any foot-hold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism.

mind

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching. - Aristotle quote.
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there. - Albert Einstein quote.
There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.

intuition

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. - Socrates quote.
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
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.
Shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, say that you know it; when you do not know a thing, admit that you do not know it. That is knowledge. - Confucius quote.
Shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, say that you know it; when you do not know a thing, admit that you do not know it. That is knowledge.
The Essence of Knowledge is, having it, to use it. - Confucius quote.
The Essence of Knowledge is, having it, to use it.

action

To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. - Confucius quote.
To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.
The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

science

The incompleteness and the uncertainty of our knowledge, our precariousness, suspended over the abyss of the immensity of what we don't know, does not render life meaningless; it makes it interesting and precious.

science

Knowledge by itself is a means without an end, a sentence without a subject. Knowledge alone can no more produce a just, equitable, peaceful society than a trumpet can compose a symphony or a violin play a musician.
It isn't what you know that makes you knowledgeable and rigorous; it is in the type of mistakes that you don't make.
Summarizing the principles in the Incerto: that something is knowable doesn't mean that you know it; that something is unknowable doesn't imply that you can't do anything about it.
Knowing stuff others don't know is most effective when others don't know you know stuff they don't know.