Knowledge

"Vous parlez devant un homme à qui tout Naples est connu."

"Faites comme si je ne le savais pas."

"Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things. As the world, which to the naked eye exhibits the greatest variety of objects, appears very simple in its internal constitution when surveyed by a philosophical understanding, and so much the simpler by how much the better it is understood, so it is in the visions. It is the perfection of God's works that they are all done with the greatest simplicity. He is the God of order and not of confusion. And therefore as they would understand the frame of the world must endeavor to reduce their knowledge to all possible simplicity, so must it be in seeking to understand these visions."

"All things I thought I knew; but now confess The more I know, I know, I know the less."

"Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science."

"Nous sommes sur un milieu vaste, toujours incertains et flottants entre l'ignorance et la connaissance ; et si nous pensons aller plus avant, notre objet branle, et échappe nos prises ; il se dérobe, et fuit d'une fuite éternelle : rien ne le peut arrêter. C'est notre condition naturelle et, toutefois, la plus contraire à notre inclination. Nous brûlons du désir d'approfondir tout et d'édifier une tour qui s'élève jusqu'à l'infini. Mais tout notre édifice craque, et la terre s'ouvre jusqu'aux abîmes."

"..it is impossible that our rational part should be other than spiritual; and if any one maintain that we are simply corporeal, this would far more exclude us from the knowledge of things, there being nothing so inconceivable as to say that matter knows itself. It is impossible to imagine how it should know itself."

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."

"If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not; Speak then to me."

"Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another."

"Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one, Have oft-times no connexion. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men, Wisdom in minds attentive to their own."

"Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more."

"What must be the knowledge of Him, from whom all created minds have derived both their power of knowledge, and the innumerable objects of their knowledge! What must be the wisdom of Him, from whom all things derive their wisdom!"

"Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; and now I know it."

"Upon the progress of knowledge the whole progress of the human race is immediately dependent: he who retards that, hinders this also. And he who hinders this, — what character does he assume towards his age and posterity? Louder than with a thousand voices, by his actions he proclaims into the deafened ear of the world present and to come — "As long as I live at least, the men around me shall not become wiser or better; — for in their progress I too, notwithstanding all my efforts to the contrary, should be dragged forward in some direction; and this I detest I will not become more enlightened, — I will not become nobler. Darkness and perversion are my elements, and I will summon all my powers together that I may not be dislodged from them.""

"Was man nicht versteht, besitzt man nicht."

"Eigentlich weiss man nur wenn man wenig weiss; mit dem Wissen wächst der Zweifel."

"Who can direct, when all pretend to know?"

"Knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanicks laughs at strength."

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."

"A desire of knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all that he has to get knowledge."

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."

"That all our knowledge begins with experience there can be no doubt. For how is it possible that the faculty of cognition should be awakened into exercise otherwise than by means of objects which affect our senses, and partly of themselves produce representations, partly rouse our powers of understanding into activity, to compare, to connect, or to separate these, and so to convert the raw material of our sensuous impressions into a knowledge of objects, which is called experience? In respect of time, therefore, no knowledge of ours is antecedent to experience, but begins with it. But though all our knowledge begins with experience, it by no means follows, that all arises out of experience. For, on the contrary, it is quite possible that our empirical knowledge is a compound of that which we receive through impressions, and that which the faculty of cognition supplies from itself (sensuous impressions giving merely the occasion)... It is, therefore, a question which requires close investigation, and is not to be answered at first sight,—whether there exists a knowledge altogether independent of experience, and even of all sensuous impressions? Knowledge of this kind is called à priori, in contradistinction to empirical knowledge which has its sources à posteriori, that is, in experience."

"Wer viel weiss Hat viel zu sorgen."

"Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking makes what we read ours."

"The improvement of the understanding is for two ends: first, for our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver and make out that knowledge to others."

"Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself."

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing"

"That virtue only makes our bliss below, And all our knowledge is ourselves to know."

"In vain sedate reflections we would make When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take."

"Far must thy researches go Wouldst thou learn the world to know; Thou must tempt the dark abyss Wouldst thou prove what Being is; Naught but firmness gains the prize, Naught but fullness makes us wise, Buried deep truth e'er lies."

"Willst du dich selber erkennen, so sieh' wie die andern es treiben; Willst du die andern versteh'n, blick in dein eigenes Herz."

"Wouldst thou know thyself, observe the actions of others. Wouldst thou other men know, look thou within thine own heart."

"Much learning shows how little mortals know; Much wealth, how little worldlings can enjoy."

"Oh, be wise, Thou! Instructed that true knowledge leads to love."

"Real knowledge, like every thing else of the highest value, is not to be obtained easily. It must be worked for, — studied for, — thought for, — and, more than all, it must be prayed for."

"What a man knows should find its expression in what he does. The value of superior knowledge is chiefly in that it leads to a performing manhood."

"Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by death."

"Pursuit of knowledge under difficulties."

"Real knowledge never promoted either turbulence or unbelief; but its progress is the forerunner of liberality and enlightened toleration."

"The tree of knowledge is not that of life."

"Knowledge is not happiness, and science But an exchange of ignorance for that Which is another kind of ignorance."

"And is this the prime And heaven-sprung message of the olden time?"

"There's lots of people—this town wouldn't hold them; Who don't know much excepting what's told them."

"For love is ever the beginning of Knowledge, as fire is of light."

"What is all Knowledge too but recorded Experience, and a product of History; of which, therefore, Reasoning and Belief, no less than Action and Passion, are essential materials?"

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge."

"How calmly and genially the mind apprehends one after another the laws of physics! What noble emotions dilate the mortal as he enters into the counsels of the creation, and feels by knowledge the privilege to Be! His insight refines him. The beauty of nature shines in his own breast. Man is greater that he can see this, and the universe less, because Time and Space relations vanish as laws are known. Here again we are impressed and even daunted by the immense Universe to be explored. "What we know, is a point to what we do not know.""

"There is no knowledge that is not power."

"Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds."