Echoes

Man knows much more than he understands.

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

I know that I know nothing.

The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease.

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.

In every systematic inquiry where there are first principles, or causes, or elements, knowledge and science result from acquiring knowledge of these.

Do not go by revelation; Do not go by tradition; Do not go by hearsay; Do not go on the authority of sacred texts; Do not go on the grounds of pure logic; Do not go by a view that seems rational; Do not go by reflecting on mere appearances; Do not go along with a considered view because you agree with it; Do not go along on the grounds that the person is competent; Do not go along because "the recluse is our teacher." Kalamas, when you yourselves know: These things are unwholesome, these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; and when undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill, abandon them... Kalamas, when you know for yourselves: These are wholesome; these things are not blameworthy; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness, having undertaken them, abide in them.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without; for much knowledge is a curse.

No one can lead a happy life, or even one that is bearable, without the pursuit of wisdom, and the perfection of wisdom is what makes the happy life. Yet even the beginnings of wisdom make life bearable. But this conviction must be firmly grasped and not merely adopted in words, if we wish to draw any strength from what we know.

Whilst in speaking of human things, we say that it is necessary to know them before we can love them...the saints on the contrary say in speaking of divine things that it is necessary to love them in order to know them, and that we only enter truth through charity.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

If thou desire to profit, read with humility, simplicity, and faithfulness; nor even desire the repute of learning.

Last of all he will be able to see the sun, not turning aside to the illusory reflections of it in the water, but gazing directly at it in its own proper place and contemplating it as it is.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

I would prefer inarticulate wisdom to loquacious foolishness.