Knowledge quotes — Page 2

Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I, Chapter I, W. D. Ross translation (1908), validated Wikisource scan leaf 21. 'All men by nature desire to know' opens the work before the discussion of sensation, memory, experience, art and knowledge. This remains ancient philosophy mediated by translation, not a modern empirical finding about cognition.

“A Scandal in Bohemia,” The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891), Project Gutenberg #1661. Holmes immediately warns that premature theorizing leads people to twist facts to suit theories; it is fictional detective dialogue.

The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter III, “The Problem,” Project Gutenberg #2852. Sherlock Holmes says that the world is full of obvious things nobody observes after inferring from Watson’s clean clothes and boots that he spent the rainy day indoors, then asks Watson to infer where Holmes himself has been. It remains fictional detective dialogue illustrating Holmes’s observational method rather than a universal scientific rule.

The World as Will and Idea, Vol. I, Third Book, §36, Haldane and Kemp translation, Project Gutenberg #38427. The sentence immediately follows Schopenhauer’s answer that art is the kind of knowledge concerned with the Ideas outside ordinary relations.

How Substances Can Be Good in Virtue of Their Existence Without Being Absolute Goods (De Hebdomadibus), preliminary proposition IX, H. F. Stewart / E. K. Rand 1918 edition, Project Gutenberg #13316. Kept as a historical metaphysical premise, not social-science evidence.

How Substances Can Be Good in Virtue of Their Existence Without Being Absolute Goods (De Hebdomadibus), H. F. Stewart / E. K. Rand 1918 edition, Project Gutenberg #13316. The sentence introduces a metaphysical method by distinguishing mental abstraction from actual separation.

Analects 2:15 in James Legge’s translation; the saying balances study with independent reflection.

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, ‘Of Miracles,’ Part I, paragraph 87 in the represented Selby-Bigge text, Project Gutenberg #9662. ‘A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence’ follows Hume's discussion of varying degrees of assurance from experience. It is eighteenth-century epistemological argument and preserves the connective ‘therefore’; it is not a complete modern statistical or scientific decision rule.

Daniel Deronda; narrator’s ironic observation while Gwendolen speculates about Grandcourt, represented from Project Gutenberg #7469.

The Story of My Life; Keller describes education as an opening into intellectual and emotional life.

Walden, Reading chapter; Thoreau describes enduring books as a form of inherited cultural wealth.

The Admirable Crichton, Act I, Project Gutenberg #3490. Ernest Woolley repeatedly delivers “I am not young enough to know everything” as a self-consciously clever epigram while Agatha, Treherne and the others struggle to understand it; Crichton later says he has no idea what Ernest meant. It remains fictional comic dialogue rather than J. M. Barrie autobiography or a factual claim about age and knowledge.

James 1:5, King James Version.

Wake-Robin; the phrase belongs to Burroughs’s description of the naturalist’s expectant attention to the world nearby.

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Book I, Chapter I, section 6, Project Gutenberg #10615. Locke follows his sounding-line analogy by saying that our business is not to know all things but those concerning conduct. The passage belongs to seventeenth-century epistemology and moral reflection, not a modern cognitive-science finding.

Sesame and Lilies; Ruskin distinguishes temporary reading from books whose value endures beyond their immediate moment.

On Liberty, Chapter 2; Mill argues for open discussion because opposing views expose weaknesses and sharpen understanding.

A Journey into the Interior of the Earth, Chapter XXXI, ‘Preparations for a Voyage of Discovery,’ represented by Project Gutenberg #3748 in F. A. Malleson's 1877 English translation. Professor Lidenbrock says that science has been built upon many errors after underground observations conflict with accepted heat theory. It remains translated speculative-adventure dialogue and a character's philosophy of scientific error, not a methodological rule supplied by Quote Atlas or a current scientific finding.

The Marvelous Land of Oz, represented by Project Gutenberg #54. The Tin Woodman—referred to in the scene as the emperor—says this to the Saw-Horse after it claims to learn quickly despite little experience. It is fictional dialogue, not Baum autobiography.

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), “READING,” printed page 49, Project Gutenberg #67466. Wollstonecraft calls reading the most rational employment when people seek food for the understanding, contrasting reflective reading with merely collecting words or quotations; this is eighteenth-century educational argument rather than a current evidence-based teaching prescription.

Discourses in America, Preface, Project Gutenberg #44919. Arnold argues that England’s inherited energy, courage and moral conduct are insufficient without intellectual “light,” concluding that transformation requires more understanding. This is Victorian cultural-political criticism and metaphorical rhetoric, not a scientific or therapeutic claim.

Essays of Montaigne, Book I, Chapter XXXI, ‘That a Man Is Soberly to Judge of the Divine Ordinances,’ Charles Cotton translation edited by William Carew Hazlitt (1877); Project Gutenberg Volume 06 #3586 / Complete Essays #3600. The sentence appears in Montaigne’s skeptical warning about confidence concerning unknown things and speculative claims about divine purposes.

The Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy, Volume II, Rome, W. G. Waters translation, Project Gutenberg #70839. Montaigne says this after describing how actively he sought out Roman public life; the point is epistemic modesty about what a stranger can really know, not a claim that travel is futile.

“Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young,” first published in The Chameleon in 1894.

Plato, Apology, Benjamin Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg #1656. Socrates says this after examining a politician whom others considered wise; the wording is dialogue speech attributed to Socrates within Plato’s work, not a claim that Socrates knew literally nothing.

Meno, around Stephanus 97e–98a, Socrates addressing Meno after the Daedalus-statue comparison. The quoted standalone sentence immediately follows Socrates’s argument that right opinions can guide action but need to be tied down by an account of their cause. Benjamin Jowett English translation, Project Gutenberg #1643. The text and translational phrasing are Jowett’s; the dialogue does not treat every true opinion as worthless.

Proverbs 12:1, King James Version.

Every Man His Own University, Chapter I, “Every Man’s University,” Project Gutenberg #36955, copyright 1917 witness. Conwell opens the chapter with “A distinct university walks about under each man’s hat” and develops the metaphor through observation, reading and independent thought. It is historical motivational/educational rhetoric, not evidence that formal education is unnecessary.

Chapter 41; the Astronomer explains why both competence and moral character are needed for trust.

Arrowsmith, represented by Project Gutenberg #70875. The sentence is Martin Arrowsmith’s internal question during a conflict over public-health claims and scientific precision; it is fictional moral-scientific reflection, not medical advice.