Browsing Quotes With Tag: knowledge (32)
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Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
Speaker: VoltairePosted: 02 Jun 2019 at 7:10 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.
...And such is the way of all superstition, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments, or the like; wherein men, having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, though this happen much oftener, neglect and pass them by. But with far more subtlety does this mischief insinuate itself into philosophy and the sciences; in which the first conclusion colors and brings into conformity with itself all that come after, though far sounder and better. Besides, independently of that delight and vanity which I have described, it is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human intellect to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives; whereas it ought properly to hold itself indifferently disposed toward both alike. Indeed, in the establishment of any true axiom, the negative instance is the more forcible of the two.Speaker: Francis BaconSource: Novum OrganumPosted: 11 Dec 2014 at 1:16 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Such imaginary constructs are of course what scientists refer to as “models,” and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with them. Actually I think a fair case can be made that we cannot think without them. The problem with such models — at least, it always seems to happen when we model something called “the market” — is that, once created, we have a tendency to treat them as objective realities, or even fall down before them and start worshiping them as gods. “We must obey the dictates of the market!”
Speaker: David GraeberSource: Debt: The First 5,000 YearsPosted: 10 Nov 2014 at 11:29 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.
Speaker: Lao TzeSource: The Tao of PoohPosted: 10 Nov 2014 at 11:04 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.
Speaker: John von NeumannPosted: 10 Nov 2014 at 10:59 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Seven deadly sins: politics without principle; wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; business without morality; science with humanity; and worship without sacrifice.
Speaker: E. Stanley JonesPosted: 10 Nov 2014 at 10:52 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
You will know that you are free when you no longer have to be you.
Speaker: Don Miguel RuizSource: the Tree of KnowledgePosted: 21 May 2014 at 4:01 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
There are too many lies in my head to accept something as simple as the truth.
Speaker: Don Miguel RuizSource: the Voice of KnowledgePosted: 21 May 2014 at 3:59 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
Speaker: Robert HeinleinPosted: 09 Feb 2014 at 5:55 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
You will find wise men in any religion. And good men in every nation.
Those who truly seek wisdom are those who will acknowledge the virtue in their adversaries and who will learn from those who disabuse them of error. All others are equally closed-minded.Speaker: Brandon SandersonSource: the Way of KingsPosted: 19 Jan 2014 at 12:04 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.
Speaker: Ursula K Le GuinSource: the Left Hand of DarknessPosted: 21 Sep 2013 at 6:37 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
“What happened was, I got the idea in my head – and I could not get it out – that college was one more dopey, inane place in the world dedicated to piling up treasure on earth and everything. I mean treasure is treasure, for heaven’s sake. What’s the difference if treasure is money, or property, or even culture, or even just plain knowledge? It all seemed like exactly the same thing to me, if you take off the wrapping – and it still does! Sometimes I think that knowledge – when it’s knowledge for knowledge’s sake, anyway – is the worst of all. The least excusable, certainly.” Franny
Speaker: J.D. SalingerSource: Franny and ZooeyPosted: 22 Aug 2010 at 6:05 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
He who knows others is learned;
He who knows himself is wiseSpeaker: Lao TzuPosted: 20 Mar 2010 at 5:01 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Every question possesses a power that does not lie in the answer.
“Man raises himself toward God by the questions he asks Him,” he was fond of repeating. “That is the true dialogue. Man questions God and God answers. But we don’t understand his answers. We can’t understand them. Because they come from the depths of the soul, and they stay there until death. You will find the true answers, Eliezer, only within yourself!”Speaker: NightSource: Elie WieselPosted: 12 Dec 2009 at 7:25 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Why do we pursue information that we know will never leave our heads? I was inviting a permanent, violent guest into my home. He would defecate on my bed. He would shred my clothes, light fires on the walls. I could see him walking up the driveway and I stood at the door, knowing that I’d be a fool to bring him inside. But I still opened the door.
Speaker: Dave EggersSource: How We Are HungryPosted: 26 Nov 2009 at 8:56 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
“But I will say no more about it. Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another.”
Speaker: Hermann HesseSource: SiddharthaPosted: 01 Nov 2009 at 6:28 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
“Let me warn you, you who are thirsty for knowledge, against the thicket of opinions and the conflict of words. Opinions mean nothing. they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them.”
Speaker: Hermann HesseSource: SiddharthaPosted: 01 Nov 2009 at 6:15 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Americans have become conditioned to believe the world is a gray place without absolutes; this is because we’re simultaneously cowardly and arrogant. We don’t know the answers, so we assume they must not exist. But they do exist. They are unclear and/or unfathomable, but they’re out there.
Speaker: Chuck KlostermanSource: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa PuffsPosted: 17 Sep 2009 at 5:16 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
I think [Science is] the way of arriving at truth about the universe because, taken at its most general sense, science is disciplined inquiry. It’s an inquiry that formulates its questions carefully, and which tests them – and it does so in a way that is public and repeatable – which submits itself to review by other people (i.e. – challenge), and which is very open-minded; it’s prepared to accept that it may not arrive at answers but, if it does arrive at answers, those answers might generate new questions. But it’s prepared to put up with those. There’s something very special about the scientific mindset, which is that it is prepared to live with open-endedness.
Speaker: A.C. GraylingSource: http://whyscience.co.uk/Posted: 07 Aug 2009 at 7:04 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
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.
Speaker: Rachel CarsonPosted: 28 Jul 2009 at 11:21 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment!