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KNOWLEDGE

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TRIVIA

UNDERSTANDING

WISDOM

WONDER

---

I find that a great part of the information I
have was acquired by looking up something
and finding something else on the way.
--Franklin Pierce Adams (1881—1960)
American columnist and member of the Algonquin Round Table.
Quoted in "Reader's Digest" [October 1960].

A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more
surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force
of the common enemy. ... While the people are virtuous they
cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will
be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or
internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among
the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great
security.
--Samuel Adams (1722—1803)
American revolutionary leader.
Letter to James Warren [12 February 1779].

The utmost extent of man's knowledge,
is to know that he knows nothing.
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.
_Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays,
and Poetical Fragments_ [1794], "Essay on Pride"

Yet all that I have learn'd (hugh toyles now past)
By long experience, and in famous schooles,
Is but to know my ignorance at last,
Who think themselves most wise are greatest fools.
--William Alexander, Earl of Stirling (c. 1576—1640)
Scottish courtier, statesman, and poet.
"Recreations with the Muses" [1637]

Some drink deeply from the river
of knowledge. Others only gargle.
--attributed to Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (b. 1935)
American actor, screenwriter, and director.

Mankind is of four classes:
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.
--Arabian proverb

When people wish to attach, they should always be
ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind, is to
come with an inability of administering to the vanity
of others, which a sensible person would always wish
to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune
of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she
can.
--Jane Austen (1775—1817)
English writer.
_Northanger Abbey_, ch. 14 [1818]

-

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]

-

I'm not young enough to know everything.
--Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860—1937)
Scottish writer and dramatist.
_The Admirable Crichton_, act 1, [performed 1902, published 1914].

Be ignorance thy choice, where knowledge leads to woe.
--James Beattie (1735—1803)
Scottish poet and essayist.
_The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius_, bk II, st. 30 [1771-72]

-

For in much wisdom is much grief, and he
that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
--Bible
"Ecclesiastes" 1:18


Profess not the knowledge ... that thou hast not.
--Bible
"Ecclesiasticus" 3:25, KJV

-

-

It iz better tew know nothing than two know what ain't so.
--Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885)
American humorist.
_Everybody's Friend, or Josh Billings' Encyclopedia
and Proverbial Philosphy of Wit and Humor_ [1874]

& see

Better know nothing than half-know many things.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
__Thus Spake Zarathustra_ (Also sprach Zarathustra) [1883-85], 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"

-

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth
and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
--Edmund Burke (1729—1797)
Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters.
_Preface to Brissot's Address_ [1794] (Wikiquote)

In reading authors, when you find
Bright passages, that strike your mind,
And which, perhaps, you may have reason
To think on, at another season,
Be not contented with the sight,
But take them down in black and white;
Such a respect is wisely shown,
As makes another's sense one's own.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
"A Hint to a Young Person"

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.'
--attributed to George Washington Carver (1864—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 Cιline [Louis Ferdinand Destouches] (1894—1961)
French author and doctor.
_Journey to the End of the Night_ (Voyage au bout de la nuit) [1932]

Three things too much, and three too little are pernicious to man:
to speak much and know little; to spend much and have little; to
presume much and be worth little.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou
_Treasury of Thought_, p. 258 [15th ed. 1894].

Not to know what happened before one
was born is always to be a child.
[Lat., Nescire autem quid ante quam natus
sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum.]
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 B.C.)
Roman orator and statesman.
_De Oratore_ (On The Orator), XXXIV [55 B.C.]

Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered
over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach;
and though it is better to know them thoroughly, than to
know them only here and there; yet it is a good work to
give a little to those who have neither time nor means to
get more. 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.
Attributed in Catherine Sinclair
_The Kaleidoscope of Anecdotes and Aphorisms_ [1851].

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_, CXXI [1821 ed.]

That good sense which nature affords us
is preferable to most of the knowledge
that we can acquire.
--Philippe de Commynes {also spelled Comines} (c. 1447—1511)
French statesman and chronicler.
Attributed in _Materials for Thinking_, no. XXXIV [1837].

-

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


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


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_

-

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

She knows wot's wot, she does.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_The Pickwick Papers_, ch. 37 [1837]

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]

To be conscious that you are ignorant
is a great step to knowledge.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and Prime Minister [1868, 1874—1880].
_Sybil_, bk. I, ch. 5 [1845]

-

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."

--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930)
Scottish-born writer of detective fiction.
_A Study in Scarlet_, ch. 2 [1887]


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.
_The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle_ [1892]

-

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.
Quoted in "Time" (mag) [1965].

We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
--attributed to Thomas Alva Edison (1847—1931)
American inventor.

-

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles
the world.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.
"What Life Means to Einstein", an interview published
in _The Saturday Evening Post_ [29 October 1929].


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].

-

Someone said: 'The dead writers are remote from us because
we *know* so much more than they did.' Precisely, and they
are that which we know.
--T.S. Eliot (1888—1965)
Anglo-American poet, critic, and dramatist.
_The Sacred Wood_ [1920] "Tradition and the Individual Talent"

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
Attributed in "Manford's New Monthly Magazine" [January 1887].

The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men,
the more widespread is the decline of religious belief.
--Sigmund Freud (1856—1939)
Austrian psychiatrist.
_The Future of an Illusion_ (Die Zukunft einer Illusion) [1927]

He that knows least commonly presumes most.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.
Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732]

[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]

-

We know accurately only when we know
little; with knowledge doubt increases.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.
_Maxims and Reflections_ [1819]


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]

Where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
--Thomas Gray (1716—1771)
English poet.
"Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" l. 19 [1747]

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,
quoted in "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_, ch. 2 [1922]

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.
_The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms_, 38 [1954]

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be
satisfied with your opinions and content
with your knowledge.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania".
"The Philistine" (mag.) [June 1897]

^^

'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 (b. 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].

-

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
--T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (1825—1895)
English biologist; grandfather of Aldous Huxley.
"Technical Education" [1877]


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].

An honest heart being the first blessing,
a knowing head is the second.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
Letter to Peter Carr [19 August 1785].

-

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless,
and knowledge without integrity is dangerous
and dreadful.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_Rasselas_ [1759]


Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves,
or we know where we can find information on it. When
we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to
do is to know what books have treated of it.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791].

-

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.
_Some of the 'Thoughts' of Joseph Joubert_
(trans. George H. Calvert) [1867]

If a man knows more than others, he becomes lonely.
--Carl Gustav Jung (1875—1961)
Swiss psychologist.
_Erinnerungen, Trδume, Gedanken_ (Memories,
Dreams, Reflections) [1962] "Retrospect"

-

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].


The greater our knowledge increases,
the greater our ignorance unfolds.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917—1963)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961—1963].
Speech at Rice University [12 September 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"

Every man gets a narrower and narrower field of knowledge in which he
must be an expert in order to compete with other people. The specialist
knows more and more about less and less and finally knows everything
about nothing.
--Konrad Lorenz (1903—1989)
Austrian zoologist.
Quoted in Larry Collins
_Physical Hazards of the Workplace_, p. 107 [2001].

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.
_The Summing Up_ [1938]

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.
Quoted in S.T. Joshi (ed.) _H.L. Mencken on Religion_ [2002].

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]

Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity
will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for
opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.
--John Milton (1608—1674)
English poet.
_Areopagitica: a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing_ [1644]

A knowledgeable fool is a greater
fool than an ignorant fool.
--Jean Moliθre [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622—1673)
French comic dramatist.
"Les Femmes savantes" [1672]

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]

To have a thing is little, if you're not allowed to show it;
and to know a thing is nothing, unless others know you
know it.
--Charles Neaves (1800—1876)
Scottish theologian, judge and writer.
Attributed in Rev. John Booth
_Epigrams, Ancient and Modern_ [1865].

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.

Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
Four be the things I'd been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.
--Dorothy Parker (1893—1967)
American critic and humorist.
"Inventory" [1926]

He who has more knowledge than judgment is
made for another man's use more than his own.
--attributed to William Penn (1644—1718)
Quaker leader and advocate of religious freedom who oversaw
the founding of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as
a refuge for Quakers and other religious minorities of Europe.

You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will
change and even reverse many of your present opinions.
Refrain therefore awhile from the setting yourself up as
a judge of the highest matters.
--Plato (427?—347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
_Laws_ # 888

-

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]


The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head.
--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 B.C.]

-

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_In Praise of Idleness_ [1932]


I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel
quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I
talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
Quoted in Clifton Fadiman (ed.) _The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes_ [1985].

-

Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence
is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which
information is collected and used.
--Carl Sagan (1934—1996)
American astronomer and author.
_Cosmos_ [1980]

The best gift to give is intellectual aid, a gift of useful
knowledge. ... Nothing becomes truly "one's own"
except on the basis of some genuine effort or sacrifice.
... The gift of material goods makes people dependent,
but the gift of knowledge makes them free.
--E.F. Schumacher (1911—1977)
German-born British economist.
Referring to aid to people in poor countries in
_Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered_ [1973].

As we acquire more knowledge, things do
not become more comprehensible, but
more mysterious.
--Albert Schweitzer (1875—1965)
Franco-German theologian, philosopher, and mission doctor.
Quoted in Phyllis Hobe _Tapestries of Life_ [1974].

It is better, of course, to know useless
things than to know nothing.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC—65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
_Epistulae morales ad Lucilium_ [c. 65 A.D.] Letter LXXXVIII

Our knowledge is a little island in
a great ocean of non-knowledge.
--Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904—1991)
Polish-American novelist who won the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Richard Burgin interview in "New York Times Magazine" [3 December 1978].

He knew what is what.
--John Skelton (c. 1460—1529)
English poet.
"Colyn Cloute", l. 1106

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 very beginning.
--Albert Speer (1905—1981)
First architect of the Third Reich.
_Inside the Third Reich_ [1970]

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_ [1876-96]

^

Charles Proteus Steinmetz (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 Andrι 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 [Tomas Straussler] (b. 1937)
Czech-born British playwright.
"The Invention of Love" [1997]

It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance,
for it requires knowledge to perceive it; and, therefore, he
that can perceive it hath it not.
--Jeremy Taylor (1613—1667)
English Anglican clergyman and writer.
Quoted in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 244 [1908 ed.].

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]

-

I was gratified to be able to
answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Life on the Mississippi_, ch. 6 [1883]


What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know,
it's what we know for sure that just ain't so.
--attributed to Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.

-

It's not what you know, but who you know.
--"Washington Post" [1 March 1952]

The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it
is what the man or woman is able to do that the world cares about.
--Booker T. Washington (1856—1915)
African-American educator.
"Mind and Matter" Address to the Alabama State
Teachers' Association, Selma, Ala. [5 June 1895].

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_ [1988]

-

When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few
years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was
not half so sure of most things as I was before; at
present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God
has revealed to me.
--John Wesley (1703—1791)
English preacher and founder, with his brother Charles,
of the Methodist movement in the Church of England.
"A Letter to the Editor of the 'London Magazine'" [1765]


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, with his brother Charles,
of the Methodist movement in the Church of England.
Letter to Joseph Benson [7 November 1768].

-

We live on an island of knowledge surrounded by a
sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows,
so does the shore of our ignorance.
--John A. Wheeler (1911—2008)
American theoretical physicist.
Quoted in "ASAP" [1998].

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)

-

Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse.
--Nigerian Proverb

-----

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).

autodidact [aw-toh-DY-dakt], noun:
One who is self-taught.

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.

epistemology (noun) [κ-pis-tκ-'mah-lκ-jee or -ji]
(Philosophy) The study of the nature of knowledge:
suppositions, and conclusions — how we know things;
the structure of knowledge itself.

maven (noun) [ 'mey-vn]
An expert or connoisseur; someone with
profound knowledge of a subject.

pansophist (noun) [pζn-'so-fist]
Someone who leaves the impression that
they know everything; a "know-it-all."

prescient (adj.) ['pre-shκnt]
Having knowledge beforehand.

recondite (adj.) ['re-kκn-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.


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