Knowledge is power, but only if you do something with it. These quotes explore learning, expertise, wisdom, ignorance, and the lifelong project of trying to understand a world that keeps changing faster than you can study it.
“It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.”
“He will therefore have to use what knowledge he can achieve, not to shape the results as the craftsman shapes his handiwork, but rather to cultivate a growth by providing the appropriate environment, in the manner in which the gardener does this for his plants.”
“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.”
“The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.”
“Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one's being.”
“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”
“It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.”
“His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.”
“You can acquire a lot of knowledge without ever going to school.”
“Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.”
“Books minister to our knowledge, to our guidance, and to our delight, by their truth, their uprightness, and their art.”
“Faulkner is a writer who has had much to do with my soul, but Hemingway is the one who had the most to do with my craft - not simply for his books, but for his astounding knowledge of the aspect of craftsmanship in the science of writing.”
“The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.”
“Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.”
“In the past, I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: 'Would you really want President Hattersley?' I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby, Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics, Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all.”
“Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?”