Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Knowledge
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“No one missed the news in his house. Papi insisted on that. He hated ignorance, and book-ignorance was only one kind. The kid had to know that the world wasn’t nothing but half-hour time slots where everyone gets rich and happy between the commercials.”
Esther Friesner (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education is a war against ignorance. Quality science education is not cheap. If we are serious about science education, we should declare war on ignorance and provide the necessary resources to fight it.”
Marian Ewurama Addy (1942–2014) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kwadwo Osseo-Asare, "If you educate a girl, Part II", AqueouSolutions, June 28, 2009.
“(How have psychedelics helped or harmed or influenced you?) LAH: I was deeply affected. They gave me a much wider view of the world, as well as a much wider view of our ignorance, and ignorance, according to the Buddha, is our basic difficulty. Psychedelics and the process of aging make that clear to me all the time.”
Laura Huxley (1911–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But one of the best definitions for evil is that it is 'militant ignorance'. Militant unconsciousness. The Vietnam War is one of the best examples I know of this militant ignorance on a grand scale.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Page 10, UK 2010 edition.
“The apartheid narratives illustrate that for ignorance to function as social regulation, subjectivities must be formed that are appropriate performers of ignorance, disciplined in cognition, affect and ethics.”
Melissa Steyn wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ultimately, Croce was a champion of scientific ignorance – and therefore of ignorance tout court – as well as a champion of lost causes. (p. 116)”
Piergiorgio Odifreddi (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not endorse ignorance. I love these people, but not their ignorance. I love the potential within them—the potential that can lead to their awakening”
Bahram Beyzai (1938–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The main cause of poverty or financial struggle is fear and ignorance, not the economy or the government or the rich. It’s self-inflicted fear and ignorance that keeps people trapped.”
Robert Kiyosaki (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding; they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“More and more, people see that solving any problem is a question of acquiring knowledge and having respect for the cognitive and epistemological processes involved in the human brain: use what you know, learn what you can, and if you have to guess, be aware that you do so you can go back and update your guesses when you (hopefully) learn more.”
Erik Naggum (1965–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here is the ultimate hope of saving ourselves from extinction. We must learn to understand that the contents of all knowledge is empirical; that its test is whether it works; and we must learn to act on that understanding in the world as well as in the laboratory.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are a lot to learn in both Eastern and western civilizations. If we summarize the Western civilization to American civilization and take it as an example, we can better understand the vast area of knowledge that the East can pick up and learn from it. Likewise, the Westerners have to look up to the Eastern civilizations to get new and more inner or spiritual ideas in every dimension of life.”
Elia M. Ramollah (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“science asks us to learn about organisms, traditional knowledge asks us to learn from them.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learn French, and if possible German. Learn a little book-keeping, and become well acquainted with accounts, and the use they can be put to when properly kept. Without a knowledge of accounts, you will never be able to carry out large works with economy, or ever become thoroughly acquainted with the cost of work, which is of the first importance to an engineer.”
Alexander McDonnell (engineer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone knows that time is Death, that Death hides in clocks. Imposing another time powered by the Clock of the Imagination, however, can refuse his law. Here, freed of the Grim Reaper's scythe, we learn that pain is knowledge and all knowledge pain.”
Federico Fellini (1920–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You know so much,” Mari said softly. “You have kept so much knowledge safe. And yet there is still so much more to learn.” Coleen smiled. “Those things are the definition of happiness for a librarian. That and sharing the knowledge we have.”
John G. Hemry (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death.”
Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learning gives us a fuller conviction of the imperfections of our nature; which one would think, might dispose us to modesty for the more a man knows, the more he discovers his ignorance.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without feeling abashed by my ignorance, I confess that I am absolutely unable to say. In the absence of an appearance of learning, my answer has at least one merit, that of perfect sincerity.”
Jean Henri Fabre (1823–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The peasantry are wiser in their ignorance than the savants of St Petersburg in their learning.”
William Barrett (philosopher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, research is the means of all learning, and ignorance is the end.”
Michel de Montaigne (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.”
J. De La Fontaine (1621–1695) said by 1695 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Complete knowledge of every theoretical and instrumental detail can only be obtained by those who will devote... a large portion of their lives; but sound knowledge of the principles... can be obtained by the reasonable efforts of persons possessing common opportunities for general knowledge.”
George Biddell Airy (1801–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In imaginative thought there is no real knowledge of anything but similarities (ultimately identities): knowledge of differences is merely a transition to a new knowledge of similarities. (p. 215)”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What must be the knowledge of Him, from whom all created minds have derived both their power of knowledge, and the innumerable objects of their knowledge! What must be the wisdom of Him, from whom all things derive their wisdom!”
Timothy Dwight IV (1752–1817) said by 1817 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 275.
“Knowledge is also inferred from what is accepted as established knowledge, with new knowledge being based on the best explanation. This includes possible truths subject to proof.”
Nayef Al-Rodhan (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge alone is not power, knowledge plus action equals power. Knowledge is useless without action and vice versa.”
Lupe Fiasco (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Yes, Professor, knowledge and understanding are quite different. Only understanding can lead to being, whereas knowledge is but a passing presence in it. New knowledge displaces the old and the result is, as it were, a pouring from the empty into the void.”
G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge is not spiritual, nor is it a religion. Knowledge belongs in neither of those two categories. Knowledge says there is a consciousness inside of you, that you are complete.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles 1998)
“Knowledge is partial, because our intellect is an instrument, it is only a part of us, it can give us information about things which can be divided and analysed, and whose properties can be classified part by part. But Brahma is perfect, and knowledge which is partial can never be a knowledge of him.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I shout: Ideal, Ideal, Ideal Knowledge, Knowledge, Knowledge, Boomboom, Boomboom, Boomboom I have recorded fairly accurately Progress, Law, Morals, and all the other magnificent qualities that various very intelligent people have discussed in so many books.”
Tristan Tzara (1896–1963) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Dada Almanac: Berlin 1920, (1983) ed. Richard Huelsenbeck, transl. Malcolm Green, p.127
“The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is, to my mind, a very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not believe that it is other than a very valuable possession, however infinitesimal its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?”
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) first seen 1877 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Elementary Instruction in Physiology" (1877)
“Understanding human nature is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing it can we know God. It is also a fact that the knowledge of God is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing God can we understand human nature.”
Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As knowledge of the alphabet and its permutations and combinations is to traditional literacy, and as a knowledge of numbers and their permutations and combinations is to mathematics, so a knowledge of the biological and conceptual alphabets of the brain and its apparently infinite permutations and combinations is to mental literacy.”
Tony Buzan (1942–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When knowledge is the slave of social considerations, it defines a special class; when it serves its own ends only, it no longer does so. There is of course a profound logic in this paradox: genuine knowledge is egalitarian in that it allows no privileged source, testers, messengers of Truth. It tolerates no privileged and circumscribed data. The autonomy of knowledge is a leveller.”
Ernest Gellner (1925–1995) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Plough, Sword, and Book : The Structure of Human History (1988), Ch. 5 : Codification, p. 123
“That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true Knowledge, all else is only a negation of Knowledge. (138)”
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God. Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.”
John Calvin (1509–1564) said by 1564 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kant stated defensively that he had "found it necessary to deny knowledge. . . to make room for faith," but he had not made room for faith; he had made room for thought, and he had not "denied knowledge" but separated knowledge from thinking.”
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The various segments of the system of profound knowledge proposed here cannot be separated. They interact with each other. Thus, knowledge of psychology is incomplete without knowledge of variation.”
W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science holds our answer; knowledge—real knowledge, verifiable knowledge, not superstition, not religious nonsense—will be our salvation.”
Robert J. Sawyer (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once we recognize that all historical knowledge is relational knowledge, and can only be formulated with reference to the position of the observer, we are faced, once more, with the task of discriminating between what is true and what is false in such knowledge.”
Karl Mannheim (1893–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This duality can be pursued further and is related to a duality between past and future and the notions of control and knowledge. Thus we may have knowledge of the past but cannot control it; we may control the future but have no knowledge of it.”
Claude Elwood Shannon (1916–2001) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Coding Theorems for a Discrete Source With a Fidelity Criterion". IRE International Convention Records, volume 7, pp. 142--163, 1959.
“Knowledge in and of itself is devoid of good and evil. Knowledge, however, does not necessarily make human beings wiser. In fact, knowledge without wisdom can be outright dangerous.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea of knowledge as an improbable structure is still a good place to start. Knowledge, however, has a dimension which goes beyond that of mere information or improbability. This is a dimension of significance which is very hard to reduce to quantitative form. Two knowledge structures might be equally improbable but one might be much more significant than the other.”
Kenneth Boulding (1910–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science can only be comprehended epistemologically, which means as one category of possible knowledge, as long as knowledge is not equated either effusively with the absolute knowledge of a great philosophy or blindly with scientistic self-understanding of the actual business of research.”
Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only knowledge that can truly orient action is knowledge that frees itself from mere human interests and is based in Ideas—in other words knowledge that has taken a theoretical attitude.”
Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the popular arena, one can tell … that the average man … imagines that an industrious acquisition of particulars will render him a man of knowledge. With what pathetic trust does he recite his facts! He has been told that knowledge is power, and knowledge consists of a great many small things.”
Richard Weaver (1910–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Greek fable, as in Christian, it is asserted that there is a forbidden knowledge which brings nothing into world but woe. Our generation has had ample demonstration of what that knowledge is. It is knowledge of the useful rather than the true and the good, of techniques rather than of ends.”
Richard Weaver (1910–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…Scientific knowledge does not represent the totality of knowledge; it has always existed in addition to, and in competition and conflict with, another kind of knowledge, which I will call narratives in the interest of simplicity.”
Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source