Best knowledge & firsts Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Journey to the Hebrides: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland & The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

“During the first half of the present century we had an Alexander von Humboldt, who was able to scan the scientific knowledge of his time in its details, and to bring it within one vast generalization. At the present juncture, it is obviously very doubtful whether this task could be accomplished in a similar way, even by a mind with gifts so peculiarly suited for the purpose as Humboldt's was, and if all his time and work were devoted to the purpose.”

Ifs Knows Way Mind Firsts Able Science Purpose Half Knowledge Century Tasks Details Accomplished Devoted Doubtful Generalization Scientific Knowledge Juncture

Author:Hermann von Helmholtz

“There is nothing so charming as the knowledge of literature; of that branch of literature, I mean, which enables us to discover the infinity of things, the immensity of Nature, the heavens, the earth, and the seas; this is that branch which has taught us religion, moderation, magnanimity, and that has rescued the soul from obscurity; to make her see all things above and below, first and last, and between both; it is this that furnishes us wherewith to live well and happily, and guides us to pass our lives without displeasure and without offence.”

“A knowledge of mankind and of things that surround us gives us that second education which proves far move valuable than our first because it alone turns out a truly accomplished man.”

Men Giving Firsts Moving Turns Knowledge Mankind Prove Valuable Accomplished Surround

Author:Honore de Balzac

“Now there cannot be first principles for men, unless the Divinity has revealed them; all the rest--beginning, middle, and end--isnothing but dreams and smoke.”

Men Firsts Ends God Dream Principles Knowledge Middle Smoke Divinity Beginning Middle And End

Author:Michel de Montaigne

“Knowledge signifies things known. Where there are no things known, there is no knowledge. Where there are no things to be known, there can be no knowledge. We have observed that every science, that is, every branch of knowledge, is compounded of certain facts, of which our sensations furnish the evidence. Where no such evidence is supplied, we are without data; we are without first premises; and when, without these, we attempt to build up a science, we do as those who raise edifices without foundations. And what do such builders construct? Castles in the air.”

Firsts Facts Science Certain Religion Known Knowledge Air Evidence Raises Foundation Data Branches Sensations Constructs Castles Premises Builder Edifice Castles In The Air

Author:Frances Wright

“For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize... They were pursuing science in order to know, and not for any utilitarian end.”

Thinking Knows Men Firsts Ends Order Wonder Knowledge Ignorance Philosophical Ignorant Utility Owing Puzzled Utilitarian

Author:Aristotle

“Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.”

World Firsts Body Born Existence Knowledge Position Sight Infinite Intellect Infinity Compass Expanse

Book:Thoughts

Source: Thoughts

“Knowledge has two extremes. The first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at birth. The other extreme is that reached by great minds, who, having run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back again to that same natural ignorance from which they set out; this is a learned ignorance which is conscious of itself.”

Knows Men Mind Firsts Two Running Natural Knowledge Ignorance Birth Pure Conscious Extremes Self Knowledge Back Again Great Minds Two Extremes

Author:Blaise Pascal

“With Nietzsche, the black pirates' flag appears for the first time on the high sea of German knowledge. (He is) a different man, from a different race, (his,) a new kind of heroism, philosophywith bellicose weapons and armor.”

Men Firsts Kind Different Black Race Knowledge Sea Weapons First Time Philosophical Flags Heroism Pirate Armor Different Races High Seas

Author:Stefan Zweig

“The very first step toward success in any occupation is to become interested in it. Locke put this in a very happy way when he said, give a pupil "a relish of knowledge" and you put life into his work.”

Way Giving Firsts Said Steps Knowledge Occupation First Steps Very Happy Pupils Relish

Book:The philosophical essays

Source: The philosophical essays

“Wonder... and not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.”

Firsts Philosophy Wonder Principles Knowledge Study Mankind Expectations Discovery Advantage Connections Lays Various Appearance Concealed Prompts

Author:Adam Smith

“First therefore let us seek the dignity of knowledge in the archetype or first platform, which is in the attributes and acts of God, as far as they are revealed to man and may be observed with sobriety; wherein we may not seek it by the name of Learning; for all Learning is Knowledge acquired, and all Knowledge in God is original: and therefore we must look for it by another name, that of Wisdom or Sapience, as the Scriptures call it.”

Men Firsts Looks May Names Knowledge Dignity Originals Scripture Attributes Platforms Sobriety Archetype

Book:The works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor of England, in five volumes

Source: The works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor of England, in five volumes

“The true bounds and limitations, whereby human knowledge is confined and circumscribed,... are three: the first, that we do not so place our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality: the second, that we make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and contentment, and not distates or repining: the third, that we do not presume by the contemplation of Nature to attain to the mysteries of God.”

“I am always of the opinion with the learned, if they speak first.”

Ifs Firsts Speak Opinion Knowledge

Author:William Congreve

“He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom.”

Firsts Wisdom Decision Steps Knowledge Stupid Fool Dare First Steps Foolishness Knowledge Wisdom Knowledge And Wisdom

Book:The Pathos of Distance: A Book of a Thousand and One Moments

Source: The Pathos of Distance: A Book of a Thousand and One Moments

“The improvement of the understanding is for two ends; first, for our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver and make out that knowledge to others.”

Firsts Two Ends Understanding Education Knowledge Increase Intelligence Educational Improvement Literacy Understanding Others Continuous Improvement

Author:John Locke

“Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.”

Knows World Firsts Country Science Humanity Nations Knowledge Hard Work Highest Accounts Intelligent Carrie Torches Personification

Author:Louis Pasteur

“In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat, but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress toward a victory.”

Firsts Real Science Winning Steps Knowledge Progress Evolution Victory Logic Mark Defeat Contradiction First Steps Formal Signals Real Knowledge

Book:Science and the Modern World

Source: Science and the Modern World

“Things have their roots and branches. Affairs have their beginnings and their ends. To know what is first and what is last will lead one near the Way.”

Knows Way Firsts Ends Lasts Knowledge Learning Roots Affair Branches Roots And Branches

Author:Confucius

“The cultivated person's first duty is to be always prepared to rewrite the encyclopedia.”

People Firsts Persons Knowledge Duty Intelligent Prepared Intelligence Civilized Civility Cultivation Cultivating Preparedness Rewriting Encyclopedia

Book:Serendipities: Language and Lunacy

Source: Serendipities: Language and Lunacy

“At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done--then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.”

Source: The Secret Garden

“The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.”

“Knowledge always desires increase, it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself.”

Firsts Desire Knowledge Fire Increase Agents Self Knowledge

Book:Dr. Johnson's table-talk: aphorisms [&c.] selected and arranged from mr. Boswell's life of Johnson

Source: Dr. Johnson's table-talk: aphorisms [&c.] selected and arranged from mr. Boswell's life of Johnson

“Knowledge has three degrees--opinion, science, illumination. The means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition.”

Firsts Mean Three Opinion Knowledge Degrees Thirds Instruments Instinct Intuition Illumination Hunches Dialectics

Author:Plotinus

“The end of the Cold War removed the immediate causes of whole destruction but not the threat contained in our knowledge. We must tame this knowledge with the ideals of justice, caring, and compassion summoned from our common human spiritual and moral heritage, if we are to live in peace and serenity in the twenty-first century.”

“You must acquire the best knowledge first, and without delay; it is the height of madness to learn what you will later have to unlearn.”

Firsts Knowledge Madness Height Acquire Delay Unlearn

Book:The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 1 to 141, 1484-1500

Source: The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 1 to 141, 1484-1500

“Each part of the mind sees only a little of what happens in some others, and that little is swiftly refined, reformulated and "represented." We like to believe that these fragments have meanings in themselves - apart from the great webs of structure from which they emerge - and indeed this illusion is valuable to us qua thinkers - but not to us as psychologists - because it leads us to think that expressible knowledge is the first thing to study.”

Thinking Mind Firsts Believe Littles Happens Knowledge Study Illusion Structure Valuable Thinker Fragments Psychologist Refined

Author:Marvin Minsky

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

Ifs Knows Firsts Problem Asks Hours Knowledge Learning Five Minutes Solutions Management Solve Five Minutes

Author:Albert Einstein

“Whenever a warrior decides to do something, he must go all the way, but he must take responsibility for what he does. No matter what he does, he must know first why he is doing it, and then he must proceed with his actions without having doubts or remorse about them.”

Knows Way Firsts Doe Matter Action Attitude Responsibility Knowledge Doubt No Matter What Warrior Taking Responsibility Remorse Don Juan Juan Way Of The Warrior Spiritual Warrior

Book:The Wheel Of Time: The Shamans Of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life De

Source: The Wheel Of Time: The Shamans Of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life De

“There is only one law of Nature-the second law of thermodynamics-which recognises a distinction between past and future more profound than the difference of plus and minus. It stands aloof from all the rest. ... It opens up a new province of knowledge, namely, the study of organisation; and it is in connection with organisation that a direction of time-flow and a distinction between doing and undoing appears for the first time.”

“All knowledge resolves itself into probability. ... In every judgment, which we can form concerning probability, as well as concerning knowledge, we ought always to correct the first judgment deriv'd from the nature of the object, by another judgment, deriv'd from the nature of the understanding.”

Firsts Wells Form Science Understanding Knowledge Objects Ought Judgment Resolve Probability

Book:A Treatise of Human Nature

Source: A Treatise of Human Nature

“At first he who invented any art that went beyond the common perceptions of man was naturally admired by men, not only because there was something useful in the inventions, but because he was thought wise and superior to the rest. But as more arts were invented, and some were directed to the necessities of life, others to its recreation, the inventors of the latter were always regarded as wiser than the inventors of the former, because their branches of knowledge did not aim at utility.”

Knows Men Firsts Art Science Common Knowledge Wise Perception Aim Invention Superiors Former Branches Latter Wiser Utility Inventor Recreation

Book:Pocket Aristotle

Source: Pocket Aristotle

“First, In showing in how to avoid attempting impossibilities. Second, In securing us from important mistakes in attempting what is, in itself possible, by means either inadequate or actually opposed to the end in view. Thirdly, In enabling us to accomplish our ends in the easiest, shortest, most economical, and most effectual manner. Fourth, In inducing us to attempt, and enabling us to accomplish, object which, but for such knowledge, we should never have thought of understanding. On the ways that a knowledge of the order of nature can be of use.”

Knows Way Should Firsts Mean Important Ends Use Science Order Understanding Views Mistake Knowledge Objects Accomplish Fourth Impossibility Attempting Inadequate Enabling

Author:John Herschel

“His [Thomas Edison] method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90 per cent of the labor. But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct and practical American sense. In view of this, the truly prodigious amount of his actual accomplishments is little short of a miracle.”

“I also maintain that clear knowledge of natural science must be acquired, in the first instance, through mastery of medicine alone.”

Knows Firsts Science Natural Knowledge Clear Medicine Instance Mastery Natural Science

Author:Hippocrates

“It is better to have a few forms well known than to teach a little about many hundred species. Better a dozen specimens thoroughly studied as the result of the first year's work, than to have two thousand dollars' worth of shells and corals bought from a curiosity-shop. The dozen animals would be your own.”

Years Firsts Wells Littles Two Would Be Form Science Animal Results Known Knowledge Teach Teaching Thousand Hundred Dollars Species Curiosity Shops Dozen Shells Well Known

Author:Louis Agassiz

“Learn the leading precognita of all things-no need to turn over leaf by leaf, but grasp the trunk hard and you will shake all the branches. Advice cherished by Samuel Johnson that that, if one is to master any subject, one must first discover its general principles.”

Ifs Needs Firsts Hard Turns Principles Knowledge Advice Subjects Masters All Things Branches Shakes Over It Leafs Johnson Trunks

Author:Samuel Johnson

“No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories and common notions, and to apply the understanding, thus made fair and even, to a fresh examination of particulars. Thus it happens that human knowledge, as we have it, is a mere medley and ill-digested mass, made up of much credulity and much accident, and also of the childish notions which we at first imbibed.”

Mind Firsts Humans Made Happens Science Purpose Found Understanding Common Knowledge Theory Mass Fairs Mere Notion Ill Accidents Firm Examination Credulity Human Knowledge Medley

Book:The Great Instauration

Source: The Great Instauration

“Our knowledge springs from two fundamental sources of the mind; the first is the capacity of receiving representations (receptivity for impressions), the second is the power of knowing an object through these representations (spontaneity [in the production] of concepts).”

Source: Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Pure Reason

“Don't speak to me about your religion; first show it to me in how you treat other people. Don't tell me how much you love your God; show me in how much you love all God's children. Don't preach to me your passion for your faith; teach me through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I'm not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as I am in how you choose to live and give.”

People Love Giving Firsts Children Ends God Shows Religion Faith Passion Speak Compassion Knowledge Teach Kindness Learning Love You Politician Treats Sells Neighbor You Choose Show Me Extremist

Author:Cory Booker

“At the age of three I began to look around my grandfather's library. My first knowledge of astronomy came from reading and looking at pictures at that time. By the time I was six I remember him buying books for me. ... I think I was eight, he bought me a three-inch telescope on a brass mounting. ... So, as far back as I can remember, I had an early interest in science in general, astronomy in particular.”

“The study of taxonomy in its broadest sense is probably the oldest branch of biology or natural history as well as the basis for all the other branches, since the first step in obtaining any knowledge of things about us is to discriminate between them and to learn to recognize them.”

Firsts Wells Science Natural Steps Knowledge Study Bases Branches Biology First Steps Obtaining Natural History Taxonomy

Author:Richard E. Blackwelder

“Nothing is known in our profession by guess; and I do not believe, that from the first dawn of medical science to the present moment, a single correct idea has ever emanated from conjecture: it is right therefore, that those who are studying their profession should be aware that there is no short road to knowledge; and that observation on the diseased living, examination of the dead, and experiments upon living animals, are the only sources of true knowledge; and that inductions from these are the sole bases of legitimate theory.”

“The first thing the reasonable man must do is to be content with a very little knowledge and a very great deal of ignorance. The second thing he must do is to make the utmost possible use of the knowledge he has and not waste his energy crying for the moon. The third thing he must do is try and see clearly where his knowledge ends and his ignorance begins.”

Knows Men Trying Firsts Littles Ends Use Science Energy Deals Knowledge Cry Ignorance Moon Waste Thirds Ignorant Reasonable Little Knowledge Reasonable Man

Author:Arthur David Ritchie

“To seek in the great accumulation of the already-said the text that resembles "in advance" a later text, to ransack history in order to rediscover the play of anticipations or echoes, to go right back to the first seeds or to go forward to the last traces, to reveal in a work its fidelity to tradition or its irreducible uniqueness, to raise or lower its stock of originality, to say that the Port -Royal grammarians invented nothing, or to discover that Cuvier had more predecessors than one thought, these are harmless enough amusements for historians who refuse to grow up.”

“There are lots of cases where we know more about how the world works than we do about how we know how it works. That's no paradox. Understanding the structure of galaxies is one thing, understanding how we understand the structure of galaxies is quite another. There isn't the slightest reason why the first should wait on the second and, in point of historical fact, it didn't. This bears a lot of emphasis; it turns up in philosophy practically everywhere you look.”

“A man that advances in spiritual and in temporal matters at the same time, minding to keep the spiritual first, will not let the temporal lead him; he will not place his heart upon his farm, his horses, or any possession that he has. He will place his desires in heaven, and will anchor his hope in that eternal soil; and his temporal affairs will come up as he advances in the knowledge of God.”

Men Firsts Heart Matter Spiritual Desire Heaven Knowledge Eternal Eternity Horse Affair Come Up Possession Soil Farms Anchors Knowledge Of God

Author:Jedediah M. Grant

“Vitally important for a young man or woman is, first, to realize the value of education and then to cultivate earnestly, aggressively, ceaselessly, the habit of self-education.”

Men Firsts Important Self Wisdom Young Values Realizing Decision Knowledge Self Help Habit Young Man Self Education Value Of Education

Book:Keys to Success

Source: Keys to Success

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

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Knowledge Quotes