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	KNOWLEDGE . . . [QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS] see: BIOGRAPHY BOOKS BOOK BURNING CENSORSHIP COMMON SENSE COLLEGE COMPUTERS CURIOSITY DICTIONARY EDUCATION ENLIGHTENMENT EXPERIENCE, EXPERTS FABLE GENIUS GROWING HISTORY INFORMATION INTELLECTUALS, INTELLIGENCE KNOW (TO) LEARNING LIBRARIES LISTENING, LITERACY, LITERATURE, LITERATURE AND SOCIETY PHILOSOPHY PHYSICS PUBLISHING QUESTIONS QUOTATIONS READING SCHOLARSHIP, SCHOOL SCIENCE, SCIENCE AND RELIGION STUDENTS TEACHING TRIVIA UNDERSTANDING WISDOM WONDER --- The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing. --Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, and dramatist. "Essay on Pride" Some drink deeply from the river of knowledge. Others only gargle. --Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (1935 - ) American actor, screenwriter, and director. - Knowledge is power. [Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.] --Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher and essayist. _Meditationes Sacrae_ [1597] "De Haersibus" Some men covet knowledge out of a natural curiosity and inquisitive temper; some to entertain the mind with variety and delight; some for ornament and reputation; some for victory and contention; many for lucre and a livelihood; and but few for employing the Divine gift of reason to the use and benefit of mankind. --Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher and essayist. _Advancement of Learning_ [1605] - If I were younger, I'd know more. --Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish writer and dramatist. As long as you think you are green, you will continue to grow, and as soon as you think you are ripe, you are rotten. --K.S. Bhargava For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. --Bible Ecclesiastes 1:18 - I honestly believe it is better tew know nothing than two know what ain't so. --Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818-1885) American humorist. _The Complete Works of Josh Billings_ Dillingham [1876] p. 286 & see Better know nothing than half-know many things. --Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and writer, _Thus Spake Zarathustra_ [1883-1891] pt. IV, 64 - Dr. Johnson was very kind this evening, and said to me, "You have now lived five-and-twenty years, and you have employed them well." "Alas, Sir, (said I,) I fear not. Do I know history? Do I know mathematicks? Do I know law?" [Dr. Johnson replied:] "Why, Sir, though you may know no science so well as to be able to teach it, and no profession so well as to be able to follow it, your general mass of knowledge of books and men renders you very capable to make yourself master of any science, or fit yourself for any profession." --James Boswell (1740-1795) Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author. _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791], "February 1766" - He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him. He who knows not, and knows that he knows not is simple. Teach him. He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him. He who knows, and knows that he knows is wise. Follow him. --Lady Isabel Burton (1831-1896) That there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity for Knowledge, this I call a Tragedy. --Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish historian and political philosopher. _Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufeldrockh_ ,3.4 [1835] When I was young, I said to God, 'God, tell me the mystery of the universe.' But God answered, 'that knowledge is for me alone.' So I said, 'God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.' Then God said, 'Well, George, that's more nearly your size.' --George Washington Carver (1861?-1943) American agricultural chemist and agronomist He had the same trouble as all intellectuals: He knew too many things, and they confused him. --Louis-Ferdinand Céline [Louis Ferdinand Destouches] (1894-1961) French author and doctor, _Journey to the End of the Night_ Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Let every bookworm, when in any fragrant, scarce, old tome he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet, critic, and philosopher We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed. --C.C. Colton (1780-1832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think_ [1866 ed., p. 318] - 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--that is knowledge. --Confucius (551-479 B.C.) K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher. _The Confucian Analects_ bk. 2:17 Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. --Confucius (551-479 B.C.) K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher. _The Confucian Analects_ Be an exemplary man of learning, not a trivial pedant. --Confucius (551-479 B.C.) K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher. _The Confucian Analects_ bk. 6:13 - - I am but a gatherer, and a disposer of other men's stuff. If the world like it not, so much the worse for them. --William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet and hymnodist. Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. --William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet and hymnodist. _The Task_ [1785] bk. 6 "Winter Walk at Noon", l. 96 - There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.- --Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French writer and philosopher. _On the Interpretation of Nature_, # 15 [1753] - My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know. --Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) Scottish-born writer of detective fiction. _A Study in Scarlet_, Ch. 2 [1888] My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it. "You appear to be astonished," he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. "Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it." "To forget it!" "You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." --Sherlock Holmes in, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) Scottish-born writer of detective fiction, _A Study in Scarlet_ [1888] - Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. --Will Durant (1885-1981) American philosopher and writer. We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything. --attributed to Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor. Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely nearsighted man who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. --Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. In _Ideas and Opinions_ [1954] "On Classic Literature" [February 1952]. [That] wise, ingenuous and modest sentence, "I know it not." --Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Tuscan astronomer and physicist. Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again. --Andre Gide (1869-1951) French novelist and critic who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. _Le traite' du Narcisse_ [1891] - The close and thoughtful observer more and more learns to recognize his limitations. He realizes that with the steady growth of knowledge more and more new problems keep on emerging. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, novelist, and playwright Philosophy have I digested, The whole of Law and Medicine, From each its secrets I have wrested, Theology, alas, thrown in. Poor fool, with all this sweated lore, I stand no wiser than I was before. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, novelist, and playwright, _Faust_, tr. Philip Wayne [1959] - Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning; Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning. --Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist, _She Stoops to Conquer_ [1773] But if you happen to have any learning, keep it a profound secret, especially from the men, who generally look with a jealous and malignant eye on a woman of great parts and a cultivated understanding. A man of real genius and candour is far superior to this mean-ness. But such a one will seldom fall in your way. --John Gregory, advice to his daughters, "Scots Magazine" [1774] Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. --Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) German novelist, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, _Siddhartha_ [1922], Chapter 2 Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. --Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American longshoreman, philosopher, and author who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982 {EB}, _The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms_, 38 [1954] ^^ 'You don't like van Gogh?' he countered. 'Then name me six of his paintings and tell me why you don't like them.' I couldn't, of course, and he said, 'Leave the room, and until you know what you're talking about, don't come back with your opinions to the dinner table.' --Anjelica Huston (1951- ) American actress. speaking of her father, John Huston ^^ Ours is a world in which knowledge accumulates and wisdom decays. --Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist {grandson of T.H. Huxley}. "Censorship and Spoken Literature" in _Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Other Essays_ [1956]. If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? --T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist {grandfather of Aldous Huxley}. "On Elementary Instruction in Physiology," [1877] _Collected Essays_, vol. 3 [1895] I was at that age when a man knows least and is most vain of his knowledge; and when he is extremely tenacious in defending his opinion upon subjects about which he knows nothing. --Washington Irving (1783-1859) American writer. "Buckthorne; or, the Young Man of Great Expectations," in _Tales of a Traveller_ [1824] Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. --Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Old age was naturally more honored in times when people could not know much more than what they had seen. --Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French philosopher. I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. --John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961-1963]. Address at a White House dinner and reception honoring Nobel Prize winners [April 1962]. I keep six honest serving men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. --Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer and poet. In _Just So Stories_ [1902] "The Elephant's Child." One may know the world without going out of doors. --Lao-tzu (c. 6th cent. B.C.) the first philosopher of Chinese Taoism and alleged author of the _Tao-te Ching_ (Chinese: Classic of the Way of Power). _The Way of Lao-Tzu_, #47 All that we know is nothing, we are merely crammed waste-paper baskets, unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing. --D.H. (David Herbert) Lawrence (1885-1930) English novelist and poet, _Pansies_ [1929] "Peace and War" When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch's statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty to learn Greek. I am amazed no longer. Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long. --W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The men of the educated minority, no doubt, know more than their predecessors, and of some of them, perhaps, it may be said that they are more civilized - though I should not like to be put to giving names - but the great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880-1956) American journalist and literary critic In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance. --Henry Miller (1891-1980) American novelist and essayist, _The Wisdom of the Heart_ [1941] What I have learned bears no other fruit than to make me realize how much I still have to learn. --Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) French moralist and essayist, "Of Experience", _Essays_ [1588] Acquire knowledge. It enables its possessor to distinguish right from wrong; it lights the way to Heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude, our companion when friendless; it guides us to happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is an ornament among friends and an armor against enemies. --Muhammad (A.D. 570?-632), prophet to whom the religion of Islam was revealed, _The Sayings of Muhammad_, 290, tr. Abdullah Al-Suhrawardy [1941] I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. --Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) English mathematician and physicist, in David Brewster {ed.} _Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton_ [1855], v. II, ch. 27 You are young my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain, therefore, a while from setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters. --Plato (427?-347 B.C.) Greek philosopher A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. --Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet, "An Essay on Criticism" [1711] Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the ignorant man as with the learned. . . . Good speech is more hidden than malachite, yet it is found in the possession of women slaves at the millstones. --Ptahhotpe 24th century B.C. philosopher _The Maxims of Ptahhotpe_ [c. 2350 BC] - There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. --Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) British philosopher, mathematician, Nobel laureate I've made an odd discovery. Everytime I talk to a genius I feel quite sure that joy and happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet, when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite; joy and happiness is just around the corner. --Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) British philosopher, mathematician, Nobel laureate - As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious. --Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Franco-German missionary It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing. --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.- 65 A.D.) Roman philosopher and poet Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of non-knowledge. --Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish-US novelist, Richard Burgin interview in "New York Times Magazine" [3 December 1978] I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance. --Socrates (470?-399 B.C.) Greek philosopher, in Diogenes Laertius _Lives of the Philosophers_ Being in a position to know and nevertheless shunning knowledge creates direct responsibility for the consequences - from the beginning. --Albert Speer (1905-1981) First architect of the Third Reich When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more knowledge he has, the greater will be his confusion. --Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) English philosopher, _The Principles of Sociology_ [1876-1896] ^ Steinmetz, Charles Proteus (1865-1923) American electrical engineer. After retiring, Steinmetz was recalled by General Electric to try to locate a breakdown in a complex system of machines. The cause of the breakdown baffled all GE's experts. Steinmetz spent some time walking around and testing various parts of the machine complex. Finally, he took out of his pocket a piece of chalk and marked an X on a particular part of one machine. The GE people disassembled the machine, discovering to their amazement that the defect lay precisely where Steinmetz's chalk mark was located. Some days later GE received a bill from Steinmetz for $10,000. They protested the amount and asked him to itemize it. He sent back an itemized bill: Making one chalk mark $1 Knowing where to place it $9,999 --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ Desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. --Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) English novelist, _Tristram Shandy_ [1760], Bk. II, Chapter 3 Knowledge is good. It does not have to look good or sound good or even do good. It is good just by being knowledge. And the only thing that makes it knowledge is that it is true. You can't have too much of it and there is no little too little to be worth having. --Tom Stoppard (1937- ) British playwright, "The Invention of Love" [1997] What the first philosopher taught the last will have to repeat. --Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, _Journal_ [1840] It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers. --James Thurber (1894-1961) American humorist and cartoonist, "The Scotty Who Knew Too Much," _Fables for Our Time_ [1940] The only thing that we know is that we know nothing and that is the highest flight of human wisdom. --Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist People cannot learn by having information pressed into their brains. Knowledge has to be sucked into the brain, not pushed in. First, one must create a state of mind that craves knowledge, interest and wonder. You can teach only by creating an urge to know. --Victor Weisskopf (1908-2002) Austrian-American physicist, _The Privilege of Being a Physicist_ Beware you are not swallowed up in books: an ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge. --John Wesley (1703-1791) English preacher and founder of Methodism, letter to Joseph Benson [7 November 1768] I am not young enough to know everything. --Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Anglo-Irish playwright and poet My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just to enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate--that's my philosophy. --Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) American novelist and dramatist. "The Skin of Our Teeth" [1942] - With reference to the word "umbrage". Many years ago whilst I was still a resident of the "Green and pleasant land called England" there was a TV show which I watched fairly regularly. It was called Panorama and was hosted by a gentleman by the name of Richard Dimbleby who was known for being factual, straight-forward, truthful and informative. He did, however, have a wicked sense of humour. During one programme he made the comment along the lines of, "If someone upsets you, take umbrage." Complaints soon poured in from the drug-stores that people were lining up and demanding to be sold a bottle of umbrage. The result was that on the following programme, Richard Dimbleby made an announcement that explained what umbrage meant. --Jan, alt.fifty-plus.friends, (reprinted with permission) Profess not the knowledge . . . that thou hast not. --The Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus 3:25 He who increases knowledge increases sorrow. --The Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:18 NKJV Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse. --Nigerian Proverb - 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: ----- afflatus uh-FLAY-tuhs, noun: A divine imparting of knowledge; inspiration. arcane ar-KAYN, adjective: Understood or known by only a few. arcanum ar-KAY-nuhm, noun; 1. A secret; a mystery. 2. Specialized or mysterious knowledge, language, or information that is not accessible to the average person (generally used in the plural). bailiwick (noun) 1. The district, office, or jurisdiction of a British bailiff. 2. A person's area of interest or expertise. Example: Philosophy is not his bailiwick. Syn.: domain Related: orbit, area, circle. cognoscente kon-yuh-SHEN-tee; kog-nuh-; -SEN-, noun; plural cognoscenti -tee: A person with special knowledge of a subject; a connoisseur. Ex.: However, I thought it well to acquaint myself with the latest scientific thinking, so as not to write a tale that would embarrass me among the cognoscenti. --Ronald Wright _A Scientific Romance_ maven (noun) [ 'mey-vn] An expert or connoisseur; someone with profound knowledge of a subject. pansophist (noun) [pæn-'so-fist] Someone who leaves the impression that they know everything; a "know-it-all." prescient (adj.) ['pre-shênt] Having knowledge beforehand. recondite (adj.) ['re-kên-dIt] Deep, profound, complex (knowledge, understanding); secret, hidden, out of view (motivation, principles); obscure, abstruse (source, cause). sciolism SY-uh-liz-uhm, noun: Superficial knowledge; a superficial show of learning. verdant VUR-dnt, adjective: 1. Covered with growing plants or grass; green with vegetation. 2. Green. 3. Unripe in knowledge, judgment, or experience; unsophisticated; green. Ex.: Drab in winter, then suddenly sodden with alpine runoff, the region turns dazzlingly verdant in spring. --Patricia Albers, "Shadows, Fire, Snow" end page | KARMA - KENTUCKY | KINDNESS | KILL - KU KLUX KLAN | KNOWLEDGE | LABELS - LAS VEGAS | LANGUAGE | LATIN - LAUGHTER | LAW (THE) - LAWYERS | LAZINESS - LEGACIES | LEISURE - LIBERALS | LIBERTY - LIES | LIFE | LIFESTYLE - LIMITATIONS | LINCOLN (ABRAHAM) - LITTERING | LIVE - LONDON | LONELINESS - LOUISIANA | LOVE - PAGE 1 (A-L) | LOVE - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | LOVE & MARRIAGE - LYNCHING | | H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The End | The Reviews | Photos |

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