January 25

There is a basic knowledge which is necessary for every human  being; until a person has acquired this basic knowledge, all other kinds of knowledge will be harmful for him.

Socrates told his students that in good systems of education, there is a certain limit you should not go beyond. In geometry, he said, it is enough to know how to measure the land when you want to sell it or buy it, or how to share an inheritance, or to divide work among workers. He did not like too many sophisticated sciences; though he knew all of them. He said that sophisticated knowledge requires an extra effort that takes the student's time from the most basic and the most important human pursuit: moral perfection.

— Xenophon

Divert your gaze  from the world of lies. Do not trust your feelings. Only in yourself, only in your impersonal self, can you find the eternal.

— Dhammapada, a book of Buddhist Wisdom

It is better to know several basic rules of life than to study many unnecessary sciences. The major rules of life will stop you from evil and show you the good path in life, but the knowledge of many unnecessary sciences may lead you into the temptation of pride, and stop you from understanding the basic rules of life.

September 23

No matter how big mankind's store of knowledge seems to me in comparison with our previous ignorance, it is only an infinitely small part of all possible knowledge.

 

Socrates did not have the weakness of many scholars, the desire to know about all possible things, to learn the origins and explanations of things - what the Sophists call "the nature of things" - and to uncover the origins of the celestial bodies. Socrates said, "Is it true that people are so concerned with these earthly things? People wrongly think that they should know everything. They think that they can despise the most necessary and important fields of knowledge, and penetrate the mysteries that do not belong to us."

— Xenophon

 

Not only is real science not hostile to religion, in fact real science always supports it.

— John Ruskin

 

Knowledge is limitless, and the most scholarly and educated person is as far from true knowledge as an uneducated peasant.

— John Ruskin

 

We cannot imagine the scope of our ignorance, just as a blind man cannot imagine darkness until he can see.

— Immanuel Kant

 

It is better to know less than necessary than to know more than necessary. Do not fear the lack of knowledge, but truly fear unnecessary knowledge which is acquired only to please vanity.

July 9

People mistakenly think that virtue lies in the knowledge of many things. What is important is not the quantity but the quality of knowledge.

Socrates thought that stupidity was incompatible, with wisdom, but he never said that ignorance was stupidity.

— Xenophon

We live in the age of philosophy, science, and intellect. Huge libraries are open for everyone. Everywhere we have schools, colleges, and universities which give us the wisdom of the people from many previous millennia. And what then? Have we become wiser for all this? Do we better understand our life, or the meaning of our existence? Do we know what is good for our life?

— Jean Jacques Rousseau

Reading too much is harmful to your independence of thought. The greatest thinkers I’ve met among scholars are people who do not read too much.

— George Lichtenberg

Do not fear the lack of knowledge, fear false knowledge. All evil in this world comes from false knowledge.

Knowledge born in argument and discussion is to be doubted.