Knowledge

We cover our deep ignorance with words, but we are ashamed to wonder, we are afraid to whisper ‘mystery.’

For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique.

...we need a theorist. A practical man means a man accustomed to mere daily practice, to the way things commonly work. When things will not work, you must have a thinker, the man who has some doctrine about why they work at all.

Doubt everything. Find your own light.

The kind of explanation which explains things away may give us something, though at a heavy cost. But you cannot go on ‘explaining away’ for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on ‘seeing through’ things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to ‘see through’ first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.”

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

A speculator is one who runs risks of which he is aware and an investor is one who runs risks of which he is unaware.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

The tragedy of life and of the world is not that men do not know God; the tragedy is that, knowing Him, they still insist on going their own way.

It's frightening to think that you might not know something, but more frightening to think that, by and large, the world is run by people who have faith that they know exactly what's going on.

To be a scholar is to search for truth. And to search for truth is to be open to the possibility that some discovered truth will lay claim to one's allegiance.

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read.

From Cambridge to California, a growing number of scientists are becoming more open to theological considerations...a drift prompted, they say, by recent advances in biology, particle physics and especially cosmology.

Equality has no place in the world of the mind. Beauty is not democratic; she reveals herself more to the few than to the many, more to the persistent and discipled seekers than to the careless. Virtue is not democratic; she is achieved by those who pursue her more hotly than most men. Truth is not democratic; she demands special talents and special industry in those to whom she gives her favors. Political democracy is doomed if it tries to extend its demands for equality into these higher spheres. Ethical, intellectual or aesthetic democracy is death.

Ever since Darwin, we have bought into the idea that humans evolved from ancient, chimp-like creatures. That’s because modern chimps seem to share a lot of anatomy and behavior with we humans. So the idea that we evolved from something like chimps seems to make sense. But now, the discovery of ardipithecus shows that this is totally and completely wrong.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

What is the question? If there is no question, there is no answer.

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

What I like about experiences is that it is such an honest thing. You may take any number of wrong turnings; but keep your eyes open and you will not be allowed to go very far before the warning signs appear. You may have deceived yourself, but experience is not trying to deceive you. The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it.

Just as it is better to illuminate than merely shine, so to pass on what one has contemplated is than merely to contemplate.

Many are the scholars who make it their professional occupation to occupy themselves in this towering edifice of culture, exploring its nook and crannies, developing their responses, making their contributions here and there, and helping to hand it on to succeeding generations. For some the temptation proves irresistible to go yet farther and make this the concern of their lives, letting society go its own sorry way while they lock themselves away in this abiding, socially transcendent cultural stronghold, acquiescing in society while pursuing Bildung. As Rotterdam burns, they study Sanskrit verb forms.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Galileo's head was on the block. His crime was looking up the truth.

You cannot understand until you see.

Governments never learn anything. The electorate does.

He is the chief of my order and the head of the Council. His knowledge is deep, but his pride has grown with it, and he takes ill any meddling.

No, the burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.’

involuntary longings lead us around a good deal, and ignorance and self-deception often skew our judgments about what is worth longing for in the first place.

There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men, and the solution is a technique.

I do not know everything; still many things I understand.

I don't understand it any more than you do, but one thing I've learned is that you don't have to understand things for them to be.

You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.