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Knowledge Quotes

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Knowledge Quotes

“Unintended consequences get to the heart of why you never really understand an adaptive problem until you have solved it. Problems morph and "solutions" often point to deeper problems. In social life, as in nature, we are walking on a trampoline. Every inroad reconfigures the environment we tread on.”

Heart Problem Social Knowledge Learning Environment Walking Solutions Consequence Management Deeper Social Life Adaptive Unintended Consequences Trampolines

Book:The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems

Source: The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems

“Contrary to widespread faith in "communication" and "knowledge transfer," information has a social life, and unless new insights are embedded in the social system they evaporate.”

Social Knowledge Learning Information Communication Management Insight Contrary Transfers Social Life Embedded Social Systems

Book:The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems

Source: The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems

“Explicit knowledge, conventionally delivered like pizza (neat boxes with toppings of concepts, theories, best practices and war stories), is consumed by the brain but not metabolized into action. The learning we call intuition, know-how and common sense gets into the blood stream through osmosis. It is shaped by social context.”

Source: The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems

“A … difference between most system-building in the social sciences and systems of thought and classification of the natural sciences is to be seen in their evolution. In the natural sciences both theories and descriptive systems grow by adaptation to the increasing knowledge and experience of the scientists. In the social sciences, systems often issue fully formed from the mind of one man. Then they may be much discussed if they attract attention, but progressive adaptive modification as a result of the concerted efforts of great numbers of men is rare.”

“Such instances of the almost infinite unpredictability of man are known to social scientists, but they are no more affected by them than the asylum inmate is by being told that he is not Napoleon.”

Knows Men Science Social Known Knowledge Scientist Infinite Instance Affected Asylums Unpredictability Inmates

Book:Science is a sacred cow

Source: Science is a sacred cow

“Money is kind of a base subject. Like water, food, air and housing, it affects everything yet for some reason the world of academics thinks it's a subject below their social standing.”

Thinking World Kind Reason Success Social Water Money Business Knowledge Air Subjects Self Improvement Standing Academic Business Success Housing

Author:Robert Kiyosaki

“The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.”

“A modern theory of knowledge which takes account of the relational as distinct from the merely relative character of all historical knowledge must start with the assumption that there are spheres of thought in which it is impossible to conceive of absolute truth existing independently of the values and position of the subject and unrelated to the social context.”

Character Values Social Knowledge Impossible Modern Subjects Position Theory Accounts Absolutes Historical Assumption Relative Spheres Absolute Truth Theory Of Knowledge Historical Knowledge

Author:Karl Mannheim

“It is knowledge that influences and equalizes the social condition of man; that gives to all, however different their political position, passions which are in common, and enjoyments which are universal.”

Men Giving Different Political Passion Social Common Knowledge Influence Conditions Position Universal Enjoyment Social Conditions

Author:Benjamin Disraeli

“Human behaviour reveals uniformities which constitute natural laws. If these uniformities did not exist, then there would be neither social science nor political economy, and even the study of history would largely be useless. In effect, if the future actions of men having nothing in common with their past actions, our knowledge of them, although possibly satisfying our curiosity by way of an interesting story, would be entirely useless to us as a guide in life.”

“But science is the great instrument of social change, all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge, and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the din of political and religious strife, is the most vital of all the revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilisation.”

“Gradually, ... the aspect of science as knowledge is being thrust into the background by the aspect of science as the power of manipulating nature. It is because science gives us the power of manipulating nature that it has more social importance than art. Science as the pursuit of truth is the equal, but not the superior, of art. Science as a technique, though it may have little intrinsic value, has a practical importance to which art cannot aspire.”

Source: The Scientific Outlook

“Neither theological knowledge nor social action alone is enough to keep us in love with Christ unless both are proceeded by a personal encounter with Him. Theological insights are gained not only from between two covers of a book, but from two bent knees before an altar. The Holy Hour becomes like an oxygen tank to revive the breath of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the foul and fetid atmosphere of the world”

“Social justice is what faces you in the morning. It is awakening in a house with adequate water supply, cooking facilities and sanitation. It is the ability to nourish your children and send them to school where their education not only equips them for employment but reinforces their knowledge and understanding of their cultural inheritance. It is the prospect of genuine employment and good health: a life of choices and opportunity, free from discrimination.”