True Knowledge Quotes

Knowledge does not corrupt, unless it is arrogant; but then it is not true knowledge. ~ Elie Wiesel

Heat is in proportion to the want of true knowledge. ~ Laurence Sterne

The knowledge of truth is the only true knowledge worth knowing. ~ Daniel Marques

Worship without 'Gnan' [True Knowledge] will give material pleasures in the world and worship accompanied by 'Gnan' [True Knowledge] is known as 'Gnan' [True Knowledge] which gives the result of moksha [ultimate liberation]. ~ Dada Bhagwan

True knowledge comes with deep understanding of a topic and its inner workings. ~ Albert Einstein

Vague and mysterious forms of speech, and abuse of language, have so long passed for mysteries of science; and hard or misapplied words with little or no meaning have, by prescription, such a right to be mistaken for deep learning and height of speculation, that it will not be easy to persuade either those who speak or those who hear them, that they are but the covers of ignorance and hindrance of true knowledge. ~ John Locke

True knowledge of good and evil as we possess is merely abstract or general, and the judgment which we pass on the order of things and the connection of causes, with a view to determining what is good or bad for us in the present, is rather imaginary than real. ~ Baruch Spinoza

The saying signifies first and foremost that no exoteric teaching is capable of providing true knowledge, which man must find only within himself, for in fact no knowledge can be acquired except through a personal comprehension. Without this comprehension, no teaching can lead to an
effective result, and the teaching that awakens no personal resonance in the one who receives it cannot give any kind of knowledge. This is why Plato says that 'everything that a man learns is already within him'. All the experiences, all the external things that surround him, are only an occasion to help him become aware of what is within himself. This awakening he calls
anamnesis
, which signifies 'recollection'. ~ Rene Guenon

True knowledge is not to be had solely through a combat against error, bad faith and untruth, but more generally, through a combat against the illusions inherent in the sensible world. ~ Luc Ferry

There is a down-and-outness under true knowledge and a childlike happy arising from it. ~ Franz Kafka

If you wish to attain to true knowledge of the Scriptures, hasten to acquire first an unshakeable humility of heart. That alone will lead you, not to the knowledge that puffs up, but to that which enlightens, by the perfecting of love. ~ John Cassian

Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge. ~ Sophie Kinsella

no true knowledge is ever reached without pain. ~ Naomi Alderman

True knowledge is that which establishes harmony and synthesis between ience on the one hand and spirituality and ethics on the other. ~ Sai Baba

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live. ~ Baltasar Gracian

I got more true knowledge from reading the Book of God in one month, than I could ever have acquired from all the writings of men. ~ George Whitefield

The way to true knowledge does not go through soft grass covered with flowers. To find it, a person must climb steep mountains. ~ Josh Ruskin

Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Parmenides all state or suggest that thinking the right kinds of thoughts positively transforms our relationship to our environment. If thoughts are the right kind, it is presumably because they build on the particular receptivity of human nature to true knowledge about the nature of things, knowledge that, in turn, brings the person into greater harmony with the world around him. Thought is thus a uniquely transformative encounter with reality. ~ Brooke Holmes

There is a secret a person with great knowledge discovers along the path to truth. That is, the more doors you open to understanding the world, the smaller you feel. And because you begin to feel smaller and smaller until your ego disappears, the more humble you become. Therefore, any man who behaves arrogantly with what little he knows, or claims to know all, only reveals to all that he really knows nothing. Real greatness does not reside inside those who feel large. The truly wise are meek. Yet being small and meek do not make one weak. Arming oneself with true knowledge generates strong confidence and a bold spirit that makes you a lion of God. The Creator does not want you to suffer, yet we are being conditioned by society to accept suffering, weak and passive dispositions under the belief that such conditions are favorable by God. Weakness is not a virtue praised by God. How could he desire for you to be weak if he tells us to stand by our conscience? Doing so requires strength. However, there is a difference between arrogance when inflating your ego, and confidence when one truly gets closer to God. One feels large, while the other feels small. Why? Because a man of wisdom understands that he is just a small pea in a sea of infinite atoms, and that in the end - we are all connected. And did you not know that the smaller a creature is, the bolder its spirit? ~ Suzy Kassem

What is the definition of Gnan [true knowledge]? It is that which must be present without fail when needed. Who should be the one imparting this Knowledge? It is not acceptable coming from any ordinary person. It must be from one whose speech has power (vachanbad), so that it will be present when needed. The Gnan [Knowledge] has to present itself, otherwise the work cannot be accomplished. ~ Dada Bhagwan

True knowledge is when one knows the limitations of one's knowledge. ~ Confucius

If it true that perception is reality, then what is shown on TV is that part of the collective consciousness known as Public Knowledge, that is, the fragment of reality which the mass of people acknowledge to be true. ~ Jennifer Stone

The only really leisured people are those who devote time to acquiring true knowledge rather than trivia. ~ Seneca.

The true knowledge of God is not only to know him as the maker of the world, but also to be persuaded that the world is directed by him, and further to know the nature of that direction. He ~ John Calvin

Yet things are knowable! They are knowable, because, being from one, things correspond. There is a scale: and the correspondence of heaven to earth, of matter to mind, of the part to the whole, is our guide. As there is a science of stars, called astronomy; and science of quantities, called mathematics; a science of qualities, called chemistry; so there is a science of sciences,
I call it Dialectic,
which is the Intellect discriminating the false and the true. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power. ~ Horace Mann

true knowledge is the ability to discern the end in the beginning, to understand the end result of present action. ~ John S. Hatcher

Circumstances can change through worldly knowledge (ignorance of the self, the Soul) and also through (true) knowledge (realization of the self). With ignorance, circumstances will bring entanglements and with (true) knowledge, circumstances will bring solutions. (True) Knowledge itself changes circumstances. Is God likely to come down and do so? ~ Dada Bhagwan

To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. ~ Nicolaus Copernicus

The true knowledge or science which exists nowhere but in the mind itself, has no other entity at all besides intelligibility; and therefore whatsoever is clearly intelligible, is absolutely true. ~ Ralph Cudworth

An intimate encounter with Jesus is the most transforming experience of human existence. To know him as he is, is to come home. To have his life, joy, love, and presence cannot be compared. A true knowledge of Jesus is our greatest need and our greatest happiness. ~ John Eldredge

A man's work reveals him. In social intercourse he gives you the surface that he wishes the world to accept, and you can only gain a true knowledge of him by inferences from little actions, of which he is unconscious, and from fleeting expressions, which cross his face unknown to him. Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem. But in his book or his picture the real man delivers himself defenceless. His pretentiousness will only expose his vacuity. The lathe painted to look like iron is seen to be but a lathe. No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind. To the acute observer no one can produce the most casual work without disclosing the innermost secrets of the soul. ~ W. Somerset Maugham

True words are not pleasing. Pleasing words are not true. ~ Laozi

Your belief without logical evidence & true knowledge is nothing but primitive superstition. ~ Md. Mujib Ullah

True knowledge never shuts the door on more knowledge, but zeal often does. ~ Hugh Nibley

Acceptance of ignorance (of reality) is the true knowledge path. ~ Dada Bhagwan

There is no Gnan (True Knowledge) where there is 'egoism' and where there is Gnan, there is no 'egoism'. ~ Dada Bhagwan

Gnan' [True Knowledge, Knowledge of one's own self], is freedom itself. It keeps one in Moksha [liberated state] and prevents [karmic] bondage. ~ Dada Bhagwan

True knowledge without xperience is food without sustenance ~ David Mitchell

True knowledge comes only through suffering. ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

True knowledge derives from the willingness to learn. ~ William Hackett

In this sense the Dionysian man resembles Hamlet: both have once looked truly into the essence of things, they have gained knowledge, and nausea inhibits action; for their action could not change anything in the eternal nature of things; they feel it to be ridiculous or humiliating that they should be asked to set right a world that is out of joint. Knowledge kills action; action requires the veils of illusion: that is the doctrine of Hamlet, not that cheap wisdom of Jack the Dreamer who reflects too much and, as it were, from an excess of possibilities does not get around to action. Not reflection, no--true knowledge, an insight into the horrible truth, outweighs any motive for action, both in Hamlet and in the Dionysian man.

Now no comfort avails any more; longing transcends a world after death, even the gods; existence is negated along with its glittering reflection in the gods or in an immortal beyond. Conscious of the truth he has once seen, man now sees everywhere only the horror or absurdity of existence; now he understands what is symbolic in Ophelia's fate; now he understands the wisdom of the sylvan god, Silenus: he is nauseated.

Here, when the danger to his will is greatest, art approaches as a saving sorceress, expert at healing. She alone knows how to turn these nauseous thoughts about the horror or absurdity of existence into notions with which one can live: these are the sublime as the artistic taming of the horrible, and the comic as the ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

When an unbaked pot is broken, the potter can use the mud to make a new one; but when a baked one is broken, he cannot do the same any longer. So when a person dies in a state of ignorance, he is born again; but when he becomes well baked in the fire of true knowledge and dies a perfect man, he is not born again. ~ Ramakrishna

There is giving, and there is knowingness. Some have generosity and compassion but no true knowledge. Some have knowledge but no self-sacrifice. When both are present, that person is blessed and prosperous. Such a being is truly incomparable. ~ Rumi

Self-knowledge is the only basis of true knowledge. ~ John Taylor Gatto

Oh, be wise, Thou!
Instructed that true knowledge leads to love. ~ William Wordsworth

If people had true knowledge of the world perhaps they would not take up arms and so perhaps he could be an aggregator of information from distant places and then the world would be a more peaceful place. He had been perfectly serious. That illusion had lasted from age forty-nine to age sixty-five. And then he had come to think that what people needed, at bottom, was not only information but tales of the remote, the mysterious, dressed up as hard information. And he, like a runner, immobile in his smeared printing apron bringing it to them. Then the listeners would for a small space of time drift away into a healing place like curative waters. ~ Paulette Jiles

To say that science is the measure of all true knowledge is not a scientific truth but a philosophic claim about science. It's scientism posing as science. ~ Scott Klusendorf

The person who judges you without getting to know you has revealed nothing about you but exposes everything about himself to the world. The prudent one knows that true knowledge is not born out of ignorance but a desire to know before casting judgement. ~ Crystal Evans

introspection leads to true knowledge, ~ Himanshu Rasam

Education, learning by heart, may come to one but not knowledge in the deepest sense until the master pleases to transmit it to you. It is done as a favor. When your learning merges into real comprehension then the world takes on a different look. It is only then that one can see beyond vision, perceive beyond perception and the art of feeling the pulse-beat becomes true knowledge. You can even sense the presence of death in the midst of life. ~ Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay

True knowledge is a virtue of the talented, but harmful to those without discernment. Spring water free of impurity, entering the ocean, becomes undrinkable. ~ Akkineni Nagarjuna

To make a true choice, we must have true knowledge. ~ Cassandra Clare

'But surely "blind" is just how you would describe men who have no true knowledge of reality, and no clear standard in their mind to refer to, as a painter refers to his model, and which they can study closely before they start laying down rules about what is fair or right or good where they are needed, or maintaining, as Guardians, any rules that already exist.'
'Yes, blind is just about what they are' ~ Plato

There is much reading material that is available which is either time-wasting or corrupting. The best yardstick to use in discerning the worth of true knowledge and learning is to go first and foremost to the words of the Lord's prophets. ~ Ezra Taft Benson

Without making the actual attempt, without trial and strife, there can be no true knowledge, no progress, no high achievement, and no legend. ~ Brendon Burchard

It is rightly laid down that 'true knowledge is knowledge by causes'. Also the establishment of four causes is not bad: material, formal, efficient and final. ~ Francis Bacon

Union with [True] Knowledge is 'Principle' [Established Truth] and union with the three [mind, speech and body] is 'non principle' [absence of principle]. ~ Dada Bhagwan

The prophet [ Isaiah ] ... points out what will be the cause of this change; for he says that hatred, quarrel, and fighting will come to an end, because men will have a true knowledge of God. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters which cover the sea" (Isa. xi. ver. 9) Note it. ~ Maimonides

It seems to me that philosophers should be more relaxed about whether or not some form of materialism is true. ~ Tyler Burge

All men are capable of reason. That is the fundamental principle of democracy Because everybody's mind is capable of true knowledge, you don't have to have a special authority, or a special revelation telling you that this is the way things should be. ~ Joseph Campbell

Out of the ashes of misanthropy benevolence rises again; we find many virtues where we had imagined all was vice, many acts of disinterested friendship where we had fancied all was calculation and fraud
and so gradually from the two extremes we pass to the proper medium; and, feeling that no human being is wholly good or wholly base, we learn that true knowledge of mankind which induces us to expect little and forgive much. The world cures alike the optimist and the misanthrope. ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Precise knowledge is the only true knowledge, and he who does not teach exactly, does not teach at all. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

The true knowledge is not in the things, but in finding the connections between the things. ~ Daniel H. Wilson

Without 'Gnan' (True Knowledge of the Self), desire(s) will not go away. ~ Dada Bhagwan

There is a great new work before us, which is to replace with true knowledge the ignorance that has destroyed human minds. We will construct unity in a world [which] has been brutally torn apart by false divisions of race, religion, gender, nationality, and age. We will heal with unconditional love those souls whose hearts have been disfigured by hatred and loneliness. ~ Aberjhani

If one does not make human knowledge wholly dependent upon the original self-knowledge and consequent revelation of God to man, then man will have to seek knowledge within himself as the final reference point. Then he will have to seek an exhaustive understanding of reality. He will have to hold that if he cannot attain to such an exhaustive understanding of reality he has no true knowledge of anything at all. Either man must then know everything or he knows nothing. This is the dilemma that confronts every form of non-Christian epistemology ~ Cornelius Van Til

I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere. Nature is well adapted to our weakness as our strength. The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well nigh incurable form of disease. We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! or, what if we had been taken sick? How vigilant we are! determined not to live by faith if we can avoid it; all the day long on the alert, at night we unwillingly say our prayers and commit ourselves to uncertainties. So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge." When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact to his understanding, I foresee that all men will at length establish their lives on that basis. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Even as it surreptitiously dipped into that dimension for its own hidden judgments, judgments which it forcefully and vehemently made and then flat-out denied making. "Empirical knowledge alone is true knowledge" - and where is the empirical proof for that? ~ Ken Wilber

True knowledge is that which consists in the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the successions of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church which exists in every place, and has come even unto us, being guarded and preserved without any forging of Scriptures, by a very complete system of doctrine, and neither receiving addition nor [suffering] curtailment [in the truths which she believes]; and [it consists in] reading [the word of God] without falsification, and a lawful and diligent exposition in harmony with the Scriptures, both without danger and without blasphemy; and [above all] it consists in] the pre-eminent gift of love, which is more precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and which excels all the other gifts [of God[. ~ Irenaus

If we learn the most by our mistakes the wise have the most failures. While the timid and unfailing will always be missing true knowledge and perspective. ~ Gary Rudz

Hence the aim of meditation, in the context of Christian faith, is not to arrive at an objective and apparently 'scientific' knowledge of God, but to come to know him through the realization that our very being is penetrated with his knowledge and love for us. Our knowledge of God is paradoxically a knowledge not of him as the object of our scrutiny, but of ourselves as utterly dependent on his saving and merciful knowledge of us. It is in proportion as we are known to him that we find our real being and identity in Christ. We know him and through ourselves in so far as his truth is the source of our being and his merciful love is the very heart of our life and existence. We have no other reason for being, except to be loved by him as our Creator and Redeemer, and to love him in return. There is no true knowledge of God that does not imply a profound grasp and an intimate personal acceptance of this profound relationship. ~ Thomas Merton

To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge. ~ Confucius

Moderation, which consists in indifference about little things, and in a prudent and well-proportioned zeal about things of importance, can proceed from nothing but true knowledge, which has its foundation in self-acquaintance. ~ Plato

The monopoly of science in the realm of knowledge explains why evolutionary biologists do not find it meaningful to address the question whether the Darwinian theory is true. ~ Phillip E. Johnson

The most important belief we possess is a true knowledge of who God is.
The second most important belief is who we are as children of God, because we cannot consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with how we perceive ourselves. ~ Neil T. Anderson

True knowledge of God and of the secret of his wisdom comes from faith, because the obedience of faith opens to us the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven. ~ John Calvin

True knowledge is found only among those genuinely worshiping God. ~ John Cassian

Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as spectacles to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions. The learned are mere literary drudges. ~ William Hazlitt

Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge. ~ David Hume

Since a true knowledge of nature gives us pleasure, a lively imitation of it, either in poetry or painting, must produce a much greater; for both these arts are not only true imitations of nature, but of the best nature. ~ John Dryden

O God, our merciful Father, by Your Holy Law do You work in us the true knowledge of our sin, that our heart may be penitent, and our soul humble before You. Blot out our iniquities with the blood of Your Son, cleanse our souls from the dark spots with which we have soiled them, and comfort us with the assurance of Your grace. Build Your Church with us and our children, that Your name may be glorified by many generations. Amen. ~ Martin Luther

Civilization is complex. It involves the existence of human communities characterized by political and social organization; dominating and utilizing natural forces; adapting themselves to this new man-made environment; possessing true knowledge (empirical science), a natural sense of refinement, of the arts, and sciences; and most importantly, composed of individuals capable of sustaining this elaborate complex and of handing it on to a capable and similarly complex posterity. Moreover, this last consideration is, in fact, the heart of the whole matter. ~ Frank L. DeSilva

True knowledge is not attained by thinking. It is what you are; it is what you become. ~ Sri Aurobindo

The role of the problem-posing educator is to create, together with the students, the conditions under which knowledge at the level of the doxa is superseded by true knowledge, at the level of the logos. ~ Paulo Freire

Tragedy belongs to the poets. Only they have "trod the sunlit heights and from life's dissonance struck one clear chord." None but a poet can write a tragedy. For tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation by the alchemy of poetry, and if poetry is true knowledge and the great poets guides safe to follow, this transmutation has arresting implications. Pain changed into, ~ Edith Hamilton

All around me insisted that my doubts proved only my own ignorance and sinfulness; that they knew by experience they would soon give place to true knowledge, and an advance in religion; and I felt something like indecision. ~ Maria Monk

Gnan [True Knowledge] means the Guru's experiential talks. ~ Dada Bhagwan

Genuine faith is living knowledge, exact cognition, direct experience. For many centuries faith and belief have been confused, and now it takes great effort and exertion to make people understand that faith is true knowledge and not futile beliefs. ~ Samael Aun Weor

The indicator of true knowledge is the ability to differentiate what uplifts us from what pulls us down. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi

28People did not think it was important to have a true knowledge of God. So God left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking and to do things they should not do. 29They are filled with every kind of sin, evil, selfishness, and hatred. They are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, lying, and thinking the worst about each other. They gossip 30and say evil things about each other. They hate God. They are rude and conceited and brag about themselves. They invent ways of doing evil. They do not obey their parents. 31They are foolish, they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or mercy to others. 32They know God's law says that those who live like this should die. But they themselves not only continue to do these evil things, they applaud others who do them. ~ Max Lucado

[God says] Discipleship is not limited to what you can comprehend - it must transcend all comprehension. Plunge into the deep waters beyond your own comprehension, and I will help you to comprehend even as I do. Bewilderment is the true comprehension. Not to know where you are going is the true knowledge. My comprehension transcends yours. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

True knowledge of God is born out of obedience. ~ John Calvin

The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater. ~ A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

A Christian receives divine wisdom in three ways: by the commandments, teachings, and faith. The commandments free the mind from passions. Teachings lead it to true knowledge of nature. Faith leads to the contemplation of the Holy Trinity. ~ Maximus The Confessor

Theology is a serious quest for the true knowledge of God, undertaken in response to His self-revelation, illumined by Christian tradition, manifesting a rational inner coherence, issuing in ethical conduct, resonating with the contemporary world and concerned for the greater glory of God. ~ John Stott

Of true knowledge at any time, a good part is merely convenient, necessary indeed to the worker, but not to an understanding of his subject: One can judge a building without knowing where to buy the bricks; one can understand a violin sonata without knowing how to score for the instrument. The work may in fact be better understood without a knowledge of the details of its manufacture, of attention to these tends to distract from meaning and effect. ~ Jacques Barzun

True knowledge gives a moral standing and moral strength. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

True knowledge is better than false wisdom. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

The biggest irony of life is that rich people actually lead poor lives! They spend their entire life making money and creating wealth and thus lose out on living a life filled with true knowledge, happiness, and passion! ~ Avijeet Das