Quotes about Knowledge
We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events. Overconfidence is fed by the illusory certainty of hindsight.
The greatest obstacle to knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.
The foolish reject what they see and not what they think; the wise reject what they think and not what they see.
We are designed by evolution to be "informavores", epistemically hungry seekers of information, in an endless quest to improve our purchase on the world, the better to make decisions about our subjectively open future.
I will be mute, and thou shalt guide my steps
Into the covert from the public road,
Till I have learned their drift. A prudent man
Will ever shape his course by what he learns.
I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs.
You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don`t see things as clearly as you do. We have to guard carefully against it.
If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right.
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith. Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge; and its nature is sinned against when it is drowned in ignorance.
I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.