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“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.”
Understanding a position requires serious contact with competing arguments; familiarity with only one side can produce confidence without real comprehension.
Source note: On Liberty, Chapter 2; Mill argues for open discussion because opposing views expose weaknesses and sharpen understanding.
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“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”
Study and reflection are treated as partners: information without examination is shallow, while speculation without learning can drift away from reality.
Source note: Analects 2:15 in James Legge’s translation; the saying balances study with independent reflection.
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“All men by nature desire to know.”
Aristotle treats the desire for knowledge as a basic human tendency, giving curiosity a foundational place in the movement from perception toward understanding.
Source note: Metaphysics, Book I, chapter 1, W. D. Ross translation; the work opens with this claim before discussing sensation, memory, experience, art, and knowledge.
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“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”
Facts can be acquired quickly, while judgment develops more slowly through reflection and experience.
Source note: Poem “Locksley Hall”; the contrast distinguishes readily acquired knowledge from the slower development of judgment and wisdom.
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“And pause awhile from Learning to be wise;”
Johnson distinguishes accumulating learning from exercising judgment, asking the scholar to interrupt pursuit of knowledge long enough to examine what wisdom requires.
Source note: The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Johnson’s imitation of Juvenal’s Tenth Satire; the line introduces a section on the hazards and disappointments surrounding learned ambition.
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“Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.”
Learning requires willingness to be corrected; rejecting every form of reproof blocks the feedback needed for growth.
Source note: Proverbs 12:1, King James Version.