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Knowledge

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“The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance. For this, indeed, is the main source of our ignorance — the fact that our knowledge can be only finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.”
Karl Popper (1902–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education is learning to grow, learning what to grow toward, learning what is good and bad, learning what is desirable and undesirable, learning what to choose and what not to choose.”
Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (1971)
“Every time a man sets himself to learn, he has to labor as hard as anyone can, and the limits of his learning are determined by his own nature. Therefore, there is no point in talking about knowledge. Fear of knowledge is natural; all of us experience it, and there is nothing we can do about it. But no matter how frightening learning is, it is more terrible to think of a man without knowledge.”
Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learning is an innate human behavior. A healthy baby is happy and excited to learn to speak, play and express itself. Why should learning stop being fun? The human race cannot survive without continuous learning. Let us impart the enthusiasm and creativity of learning in the classrooms.”
Newton Lee first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Virginia Tech Collegiate Times (November 1990)
“I recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone Yeah, oh. I recommend walkin' around naked in your living room Yeah.Swallow it down (What a jagged little pill) It feels so good (Swimming in your stomach) Wait until the dust settlesYou live, you learn. You love, you learn. You cry, you learn. You lose, you learn. You bleed, you learn. You scream, you learn.”
Alanis Morissette (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In-depth learning means learning as much about a topic as possible – learning for the sake of knowledge and understanding itself as opposed to learning for the sake of passing a test with high grades or trying to impress people.”
Ben Carson (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beware: Ignorance Protects itself Ignorance Promotes suspicion. Suspicion Engenders fear. Fear quails, Irrational and blind, Or fear looms, Defiant and closed. Blind, closed, Suspicious, afraid, Ignorance Protects itself, And protected, Ignorance grows.”
Octavia Butler (1947–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We should of course adopt a correct attitude towards learning from the qualities of the founders of Marxism-Leninism and towards the learning of Marxism-Leninism itself. Otherwise it is impossible to learn anything, let alone to learn it well. In fact, there are different kinds of people in our ranks with different attitudes towards such learning.”
Liu Shaoqi (1898–1969) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How to Be a Good Communist - 2. Be Worthy Pupils of Marx and Lenin" (July 1939)
“Prajna is knowledge but not all knowledge is prajna. Only spiritual knowledge is prajna. It destroys the illusion of a separtieve exstence. Klesas which were merely weakened by samadhi are completely burnt up by prajna. Prajna is liberating knowledge par excellence; it is also the knowledge which comes with liberatino. Prajna is Self-knowledge. (p. 90)”
Ram Swarup (1920–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Action cannot destroy ignorance, for it is not in conflict with or opposed to ignorance. Knowledge does verily destroy ignorance as light destroys deep darkness.”
Adi Shankara (788–820) said by 820 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fuel on which science runs is ignorance. Science is like a hungry furnace that must be fed logs from the forests of ignorance that surround us. In the process, the clearing we call knowledge expands, but the more it expands, the longer its perimeter and the more ignorance comes into view.”
Matt Ridley (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge — that is everywhere, that is Atman, that is in me and you and in every creature, and I am beginning to believe that this knowledge has no worse enemy than the man of knowledge, than learning.”
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When learning is in focus, arrangements are made in the environment of the learner that communicate the learning task, and learning resources are made available to learners so that they can explore and master learning tasks.”
Béla H. Bánáthy (1919–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I had a plan. Learn Emacs. Learn UNIX. And learn programming language. What happened? I didn't learn Emacs. I didn't learn UNIX. And I invented a new programming language.”
Joe Armstrong (programmer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Try to learn all that you can learn, take advantage of all the equipment that you have, and learn how to use them. Find out what the engineers are doing. Find out what the producers are doing and learn it, learn your craft.”
Adeola Fayehun (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge, even that which may unsettle us, it surely to be preferred to ignorance, however blissful in the short term the latter may be. All too often, however, political anxiousness favors ignorance and its apparent safety: we had better not learn about the genetics of skin color, goes the unspoken fear, lest such information be marshaled somehow by hatemongers opposed to mixing among the races.”
James D. Watson (1928–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A reflective teacher always fosters a sense of success. He or she begins his or her teaching by learning about each and every learner. He or she encourages and negotiates with the learners to set a challenging learning objective, and to select an appropriate learning task, through his or her knowledge about the learners' capability and constraints.”
Sukavich Rangsitpol (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge leads to unity, but Ignorance to diversity. So long as God seems to be outside and far away, there is ignorance. But when God is realised within, that is true knowledge.”
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Hindu Psychology : Its Meaning for the West (1946) by Swami Akhilananda, p. 204
“Truth is harder to bear than ignorance, and so ignorance is valued more—also because the status quo depends on it; but love depends on self-knowledge and self-knowledge depends on being able to bear the truth.”
Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The angel grew with knowledge, the beast with ignorance, Man remained in dispute between them. Sometimes knowledge draws him to the seventh heaven, Sometimes ignorance drags him down, so that (he says) 'Come what will!'”
Rumi (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge is theory. We should be thankful if action of management is based on theory. Knowledge has temporal spread. Information is not knowledge. The world is drowning in information but is slow in acquisition of knowledge. There is no substitute for knowledge.”
W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because knowledge is power, every hegemonic power challenged by “another knowledge” must try to stay in the center of knowledge. However, not every power is the right center for every knowledge. Reflective knowledge cannot be separated from its subject.”
Peter Sloterdijk (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge is the appropriate collection of information, such that it's intent is to be useful. Knowledge is a deterministic process. When someone "memorizes" information (as less-aspiring test-bound students often do), then they have amassed knowledge. This knowledge has useful meaning to them, but it does not provide for, in and of itself, an integration such as would infer further knowledge.”
Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As cited in: Jeff A. Riley and Kemal A. Delic (2010) "Enterprise Knowledge Clouds". In: Handbook of Cloud Computing. Borko Furht, Armando Escalante ed. Springer 2010.
“The view from complexity claims that we cannot know complex things completely... modest positions are inescapable... We can increase the knowledge we have of a certain [complex] system, but this knowledge is limited... The fact that our knowledge is limited is not a disaster, it is a condition for knowledge. Limits enable knowledge.”
Paul Cilliers (1956–2011) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Paul Cilliers (2005: 263) as quoted in: Vikki Bell (2007) Culture and Performance: The Challenge of Ethics, Politics and Feminist Theory. p. 8
“Knowledge of God comprises three kind: Theological, philosophical and mystical. Theological knowledge concerns with tawhid or unification. Philosophical knowledge deals with the concept of Ultimate Truth, reached through reason. Mystical knowledge is the knowledge of the Essence of God. It is attained by the saints after mushahada or the contemplation on God in their illuminated hearts.”
Dhul-Nun al-Misri (796–861) said by 861 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As for the epistemological dimension, we draw on Michael Polanyi's (1966) distinction between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is personal, context-specific, and therefore hard to formalize and communicate. Explicit or "codified" knowledge, on the other hand, refers to knowledge that is transmittable in formal, systematic language.”
Ikujiro Nonaka (1935–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Equip yourself. I believe that knowledge is power. If you want to engage power and authority you need to equip yourself with knowledge. Don’t be ashamed of the knowledge that lives in your body. Equip yourself with book knowledge but also embodied knowledge.”
Sarojini Nadar (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The horizon of our knowledge, even scientific knowledge, is open to being, to totality. And this is simply because knowledge is a dimension of our spirit, unlimited because it transcends matter. The material world may one day end, but our knowledge of it, insofar as it participates in the knowledge of God, never ends.”
Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the most fun things about games is learning. It's learning the game and getting that knowledge for yourself about this little world. The only way you can really do that is by figuring it out yourself. If the game tells me something before I get a chance to learn it myself: 1) that's really annoying, but 2) it robs [me] of that experience.”
Derek Yu (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The second research goal involves explaining learning and teaching as parts of the human information-processing system. Since all intelligent beings learn, differences in learning rates might be due to a level of prior knowledge or to the quality of teaching.”
Beverly Park Woolf wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are many aspects of the universe that still cannot be explained satisfactorily by science; but ignorance only implies ignorance that may someday be conquered. To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The “Threat” of Creationism" in New York Times Magazine (14 June 1981)
“Blind ignorance misleads us thus and delights with the results of lascivious joys. Because it does not know the true light. Because it does not know what is the true light. Vain splendour takes from us the power of being .... behold! for its vain splendour we go into the fire, thus blind ignorance does mislead us. That is, blind ignorance so misleads us that... O! wretched mortals, open your eyes.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are no divisions as such, but there is an appearance of separateness because of ignorance. This means that everything is of ignorance and that every one is Ignorance personified.”
Meher Baba (1894–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance immediately knows things in an ordinary, conceptual way. Because ignorance and its accompanying mental states arise first, wrong beliefs ensue. Therefore the texts say, "Ignorance conceals the true nature of obejcts.”
Mahasi Sayadaw (1904–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’d rather stay in ignorance. Mark you, it may be true that I am repeating something that has been said before, but in the actual creation it wasn’t so to me, because in my ignorance I didn’t know. So I think that ignorance helps a lot. When you know that somebody has done something before, it hampers you.”
Sam Selvon (1923–1994) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On trying to avoid the work of other writers that might be similar to him in "Oldtalk": An Interview with Sam Selvon' (1990)
“Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.”
Frank Herbert (1920–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learn every day. Human beings must learn and know. It is only by learning and knowing, that they can raise their ‘level’. People are affected by what their eyes see, what their ears hear and by how they learn.”
Jung Myung Seok (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The nice thing about having a brain is that one can learn, that ignorance can be supplanted by knowledge, and that small bits of knowledge can gradually pile up into substantial heaps.”
Douglas Hofstadter (born 1945) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Le Ton beau de Marot (1997) chapter 8 p. 234
“Ignorance, which is contented and clumsy, will produce what is imperfect, but not offensive. But ignorance discontented and dexterous, learning what it cannot understand, and imitating what it cannot enjoy, produces the most loathsome forms of manufacture that can disgrace or mislead humanity.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A good teacher knows that the best way to help students learn is to allow them to find the truth by themselves. Students don't learn by a mere transfer of knowledge, consumed through rote memorization and later regurgitated. True learning comes about through the discovery of truth, not through the imposition of an official truth.”
Noam Chomsky (born 1928) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chomsky on Miseducation, 1999, p. 21
“It was always my affectation even from a child, in all pieces of Learning or Knowledge, not merely to learn by rote, which is soon forgotten, but to know the grounds or reasons of what I learn; to inform my Judgement, as well as furnish my Memory; and thereby, make a better Impression on both.”
John Wallis (1616–1703) said by 1703 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great danger... not content with our real knowledge of the relation of the finite to the infinite, they slur over our vast ignorance by the help of the imagination. Myth supplies the place of true knowledge where we are ignorant of the connection between finite and infinite. Hence... most concrete systems of religion present us with a certain amount of knowledge but a great deal of myth.”
Karl Pearson (1857–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The summit of evil, the crime most natural to the devil, pride, was born of knowledge. But if this is so, how can it be possible that all the passions result from ignorance? Does knowledge purify the psyche? Paul says: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (1 Corinthians 8:1).”
Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) said by 1359 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As our elder Lao Tzu used to say, knowing ignorance is strength, ignoring knowledge is sickness; if one is sick of sickness, then one is no longer sick. For a variation, I would say knowledge for knowledge’s sake is sickness. Let her who is sick with sickness pass on the story, a gift unasked for like a huge bag of moonlight. Now stars shine white on a black on a colored sky.”
Trinh T. Minh-ha (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don’t know how long I sat there reading about it, but at some point I’d read enough. I leaned back and stared at the ceiling. I suppose I was in shock, but whether it was the shock of learning about something horrific, or the shock of learning about my own ignorance, I’m not sure.”
Tara Westover (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone knows that mathematics offers an excellent opportunity to learn demonstrative reasoning, but I contend also that there is no other subject in the usual curricula of the schools that affords a comparable opportunity to learn plausible reasoning. ...let us learn proving, but also let us learn guessing.”
George Pólya (1887–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it because I am somebody! Respect me! Protect me! Never neglect me! I am somebody! My mind is a pearl! I can learn anything in the world! Nobody can save us, from us, for us, but us! I can learn. It is possible. I ought to learn. It is moral. I must learn. It is imperative.”
Jesse Jackson (1941–2026) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Anderson College in Anderson, Indiana (4 March 1979), quoted in Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith (1987) by David G. Myers and Malcolm A. Jeeves. The first sentence is a modification of a quote by Napoleon …
“She said, "I wanna learn a love song full of happy things." She said, "I wanna learn a love song; won't you let me hear you sing?" She said, "I wanna learn a love song, I wanna hear you play." She said, "I wanna learn a love song before you go away.”
Harry Chapin (1942–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are so many facets to the ways we learn about ourselves, and then therefore treat ourselves and others; the stories that young boys and girls learn about themselves, and the way that that translates into the ways they treat each other. We learn these lessons at home, we learn them on television and in movies and books.”
Penn Badgley (born 1986) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Penn Badgley Talks You, Gender Equality, and Violence Against Women" in Teen Vogue (28 January 2020)