If you want to be truly successful invest in yourself to get the knowledge you need to find your unique factor. When you find it and focus on it and persevere your success will blossom.
—Sidney Madwed (1926–2013) American Poet, Author
The dangers of knowledge are not to be compared with the dangers of ignorance. Man is more likely to miss his way in darkness than in twilight; in twilight than in full sun.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
To know by rote is no knowledge; it is only a retention of what is entrusted to the memory. That which a man truly knows may be disposed of without regard to the author, or reference to the book from whence he had it.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
When you cease to strive to understand, then you will know without understanding.
—Chinese Proverb
Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
Forgiveness is praised by the Christian and the Vaishnava, but for me, I ask, “What have I to forgive and whom?”
—Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian Mystic, Philosopher, Poet
As the age of information demands the simultaneous use of all our faculties, we discover that we are most at leisure when we are most intensely involved.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Some men think that the gratification of curiosity is the end of knowledge; some the love of fame; some the pleasure of dispute; some the necessity of supporting themselves by their knowledge; but the real use of all knowledge is this, that we should dedicate that reason which was given us by God to the use and advantage of man.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
We don’t know one-millionth of one percent about anything.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Knowledge always desires increase, it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
There is hardly any place or any company where you may not gain knowledge, if you please; almost everybody know some one thing, and is glad to talk about that one thing.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
He that is master of himself will soon be master of others. Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it. With all your knowledge, know thyself.
—English Proverb
It is not the quantity but the quality of knowledge which determines the mind’s dignity.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Knowledge has, in our time, triumphed, and is triumphing, over prejudice and over bigotry. The civilized and Christian world is fast learning the great lesson, that difference of nation does not imply necessary hostility, and that all contact need not be war. The whole world is becoming a common field for intellect to act in. Energy of mind, genius, power, wheresoever it exists may speak out in any tongue, and the world will hear it.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
A reading machine, always wound up and going, he mastered whatever was not worth the knowing.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
They are so knowing, that they know nothing.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
Between us, we cover all knowledge; he knows all that can be known and I know the rest.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The personal power that comes from principle-centered living is the power of a self-aware, knowledgeable, proactive individual, unrestricted by the attitudes, behaviors, and actions of others or by many of the circumstances and environmental influences that limit other people.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
He that sips of many arts, drinks of none.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Each of us in our own way can try to spread compassion into people’s hearts. Western civilizations these days place great importance on filling the human “brain” with knowledge, but no one seems to care about filling the human “heart” with compassion. This is what the real role of religion is.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
All of life’s experiences are teachers in some sense, challenging us to grow and evolve. Although the Persecutor certainly provokes a reaction, the Challenger elicits a response by encouraging the Creator to acquire new knowledge, skill, or insight. Both roles provoke change, but in different ways.
—David Emerald
Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life.
Meaning doesn’t lie in things. Meaning lies in us. When we attach value to things that aren’t love – the money, the car, the house, the prestige – we are loving things that can’t love us back. We are searching for meaning in the meaningless. Money, of itself, means nothing. Material things, of themselves, mean nothing. It’s not that they’re bad. It’s that they’re nothing.
—Marianne Williamson (b.1952) American Activist, Author, Lecturer
What’s scary in life is not what people know (or don’t know), but what they know that ain’t so.
—Satchel Paige (1906–82) American Baseball Player
Every generation enjoys the use of a vast hoard bequeathed to it by antiquity, and transmits that hoard, augmented by fresh acquisitions, to future ages.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
In God’s providence there is no evil, but only good or its preparation.
—Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian Mystic, Philosopher, Poet
Knowledge is the most democratic source of power.
—Alvin Toffler (1928–2016) American Writer, Futurist
You are your greatest investment. The more you store in that mind of yours, the more you enrich your experience, the more people you meet, the more books you read, and the more places you visit, the greater is that investment in all that you are. Everything that you add to your peace of mind, and to your outlook upon life, is added capital that no one but yourself can dissipate.
—George Matthew Adams (1878–1962) American Columnist, Journalist
There is but one bond of peace that is both permanent and enriching: the increasing knowledge of the world in which experiment occurs.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
It is owing to their wonder that people both now begin and at first began to philosophize.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
What novelty is worth the sweet monotony where everything is known, and loved because it is known?
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Familiar acts are beautiful through love.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Knowledge is the antidote to fear.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Wonder is the basis of worship.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not a closet.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Whether you know the shape of a pebble or the structure of a solar system, the anxioms remain the same: that it exists and that you know it.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
Knowledge without education is but armed injustice.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
There is no knowledge, no light, no wisdom that you are in possession of, but what you have received it from some source.
—Brigham Young (1801–77) American Mormon Leader
Knowledge is the small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step in knowledge.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.
—Martin H. Fischer