The only defense against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
— Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Quotes About Knowledge
Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.
— Journey to the Center of the Earth
Ignorance is the root of many ills. Knowledge must be the fundamental ally of nations that aspire, despite all their tragedies and problems, to become truly emancipated, to build a better world.
— My Life: A Spoken Autobiography
...as far as we are capable of knowledge we sin in neglecting to acquire it...
— New Essays on Human Understanding
We have inherited from our forefathers the keen longing for unified, all-embracing knowledge.
— What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches
Today will still yearn to know why we are here and where we came from. Humanity's deepest desire for knowledge is justification enough for our continuing quest. And our goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in.
— A Brief History of Time
The study of truth requires a considerable effort - which is why few are willing to undertake it out of love of knowledge - despite the fact that God has implanted a natural appetite for such knowledge in the minds of men.
— Summa Contra Gentiles
Science enhances the moral value of life, because it furthers a love of truth and reverence—love of truth displaying itself in the constant endeavor to arrive at a more exact knowledge of the world of mind and matter around us, and reverence, because every advance in knowledge brings us face to face with the mystery of our own being.
— Where is Science Going?
One might be led to question whether the scientists acted wisely in presenting the statesmen of the world with this appalling problem. Actually there was no choice. Once basic knowledge is acquired, any attempt at preventing its fruition would be as futile as hoping to stop the earth from revolving around the sun.
— Collected Papers of Enrico Fermi: The United States, 1939-54
It takes a very long time to become young.
We have not given science too big a place in our education, but we have made a perilous mistake in giving it too great a preponderance in method in every other branch of study.
I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.
Only through Beauty's morning-gate, dost thou penetrate the land of knowledge.
I thank God that I'm a product of my parents. That they infected me with their intelligence and energy for life, with their thirst for knowledge and their love. I'm grateful that I know where I come from.
There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.
Young bodies are like tender plants, which grow and become hardened to whatever shape you've trained them.
Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.
The intellect, like all cultural values, has created an aristocracy based on the possession of rational culture and independent of all personal ethical qualities of man. The aristocracy of intellect is hence an unbrotherly aristocracy.
Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation but as a question.[A caution he gives his students, to be wary of dogmatism.]
The dead know only one thing, it is better to be alive
It's all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you're properly trained.
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.
To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is ... the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself and enlarges the sphere of existence.
The more a man knows, the more he forgives.