It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.
We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.
Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.
We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.
Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it.
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.
There was so much handwriting on the wall that even the wall fell down.
There is no squabbling so violent as that between people who accepted an idea yesterday and those who will accept the same idea tomorrow.
The aim of education is the knowledge not of fact, but of values.
The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply!
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
I was determined to know beans. Walden
True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.
Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details.
Knowledge is not intelligence.
In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected.
Change alone is unchanging.
The same road goes both up and down.
The beginning of a circle is also its end.
Not I, but the world says it: all is one.
And yet everything comes in season.
Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of the rich men in the country.
In laying hands upon the sacred ark of absolute permanency, in treating the forms that had been regarded as types of fixity and perfection as originating and passing away, the Origin of Species introduced a mode of thinking that in the end was bound to transform the logic of knowledge, and hence the treatment of morals, politics, and religion.
The Influence of
A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.
The dumbest people I know are those who know it all.
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.
I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.
We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.
All schools, all colleges, have two great functions: to confer, and to conceal, valuable knowledge. The theological knowledge which they conceal cannot justly be regarded as less valuable than that which they reveal. That is, when a man is buying a basket of strawberries it can profit him to know that the bottom half of it is rotten.
1908, notebook
Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment exactly proportioned to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow, when I know more, I recall that piece of knowledge and use it better.
Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.
Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.
The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.
Society, community, family are all conserving institutions. They try to maintain stability, and to prevent, or at least to slow down, change. But the organization of the post-capitalist society of organizations is a destabilizer. Because its function is to put knowledge to work -- on tools, processes, and products; on work; on knowledge itself -- it must be organized for constant change.
Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.
Great are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.
The first step towards knowledge is to know that we are ignorant.
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -- myth is more potent than history -- dreams are more powerful than facts -- hope always triumphs over experience -- laughter is the cure for grief -- love is stronger than death.
Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever or whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
The great teachings unanimously emphasize that all the peace, wisdom, and joy in the universe are already within us; we don't have to gain, develop, or attain them. We're like a child standing in a beautiful park with his eyes shut tight. We don't need to imagine trees, flowers, deer, birds, and sky; we merely need to open our eyes and realize what is already here, who we really are -- as soon as we quit pretending we're small or unholy.
These days people seek knowledge, not wisdom. Knowledge is of the past, wisdom is of the future.
Marx, Darwin and Freud are the three most crashing bores of the Western World. Simplistic popularization of their ideas has thrust our world into a mental straitjacket from which we can only escape by the most anarchic violence.
Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
