If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever
that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be
tethered on a ten-foot chain.
Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 - 1965), speech at the University of
Wisconsin, Madison, October 8, 1952
All men by nature desire knowledge.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Metaphysics
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881), Sybil, 1845
There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)
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 - this is knowledge.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects
Convinced myself, I seek not to convince.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849), Berenice
It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance
is never better than knowledge.
Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954)
The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not
understand.
Frank Herbert (1920 - 1986)
If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we
can solve them.
Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)
His priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but
rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even... knowledge, was
foolproof.
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.
Margaret Fuller (1810 - 1850)
Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned.
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894), The Autocrat of the
Breakfast-Table, 1858
I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that
here and there.
Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988), Letter to Armando Garcia J, December
11, 1985
You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world,
but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about
the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's
what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the
name of something and knowing something.
Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know
where we can find information on it.
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even
supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be
content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire
it.
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson
Knowledge is power.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), Religious Meditations, Of Heresies,
1597
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC)
There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent
Philosophers
Knowledge must come through action; you can have no test which is not
fanciful, save by trial.
Sophocles (496 BC - 406 BC), Trachiniae
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