130 Quotations Found

Genius is always recognized in hindsight, with the benefit of positive results in mind. We “cherrypick” the good results of divergent thinkers, but forget that we use the results to decide who’s a genius and who isn’t. Thus, tolerating divergent, genius-level thinking requires an ability to tolerate failure, loss, and change if it’s to be applied prospectively.

Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior

A genius combines the characteristics that produce resounding failures (stubbornness, lack of discipline, ignorance), a few ingredients of success (elements of intelligence, a capacity to put mistakes behind him or her, unquenchable motivation), and exceptional good luck.

Author: James March | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Psychology | Behavior

It’s precisely in matters of highest importance — love, terror, is there a God, and why is Iago possessed by the Devil? — that we’re outside the domain of knowledge.

Author: Pico Iyer | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

But one thing that happens when we acquire too much “knowledge” is that, like Othello, we sometimes fail to distinguish it from what can never be known, which may not be untrue. Another is that we’re tempted to lose sight of the distinction between those realms, like science and health, where the more data we have, the better, and others, like human relations, where the … [ Read more ]

Author: Pico Iyer | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Relationships

The pool of knowledge is limited; it’s the pool of ignorance, speculation and misunderstanding that is infinite.

Author: Pico Iyer | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

There is no knowledge without rational criticism, criticism in the service of the search for truth.

Author: Karl Popper | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

The philosophical relativism that hides behind [Kant’s] “old and famous question” “What is truth?” may open the way to evil things, such as a propaganda of lies inciting men to hatred. […] Relativism […] is a betrayal of reason and of humanity.

Author: Karl Popper | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

Knowledge consists in the search for truth — the search for objectively true, explanatory theories. It is not the search for certainty. To err is human. All human knowledge is fallible and therefore uncertain. It follows that we must distinguish sharply between truth and certainty. That to err is human means not only that we must constantly struggle against error, but also that, even when … [ Read more ]

Author: Karl Popper | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.

Author: Charles Darwin | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

A person who knows little likes to talk, and one who knows much mostly keeps silent. This is because a person who knows little thinks that everything he knows is important, and wants to tell everyone. A person who knows much also knows that there is much more he doesn’t know. That’s why he speaks only when it is necessary to speak, and when he … [ Read more ]

Author: Jean Jacques Rousseau | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

A man receives only what he is ready to receive… We hear and apprehend only what we already half know. If there is something which does not concern me, which is out of my line, which by experience or by genius my attention is not drawn to, however novel and remarkable it may be, if it is spoken we hear it not, if it is … [ Read more ]

Author: Henry David Thoreau | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

Knowledge is real knowledge only when it is acquired by the efforts of your intellect, not by memory. Only when we forget what we were taught do we start to have real knowledge.

Author: Henry David Thoreau | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

What is important is not the quantity of your knowledge, but its quality. You can know many things without knowing that which is most important. There are two types of ignorance, the pure, natural ignorance into which all people are born, and the ignorance of the so-called wise. You will see that many among those who call themselves scholars do not know real life, and … [ Read more ]

Author: Blaise Pascal | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life.

Author: Seneca | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

There is only one real knowledge: that which helps us to be free. Every other type of knowledge is mere amusement.

Author: Vishnu Purana | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

The most critical piece of knowledge, then, is the knowledge of what is essential to learn and what isn’t. A huge amount of knowledge is accumulated at present. Soon our abilities will be too weak, and our lives too short, to study this knowledge. We have vast treasures of knowledge at our disposal but after we study them, we often do not use them at … [ Read more ]

Author: Immanuel Kant | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

Action without intelligence is a form of insanity, but intelligence without action is the greatest form of stupidity in the world.

Author: Charles Kettering | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Insight, Intelligence | Knowledge

A well told story, in some ways, is the only persuasion tactic for which we don’t have good defenses for. […] That’s why I think there is a commandment about not bearing false witness, not telling false stories, because whoever set up those commandments knew somehow, that if you tell the community a false story, that’s going to stick in their brains, and they’re going … [ Read more ]

Author: BJ Fogg | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Facts | Bias, Intelligence | Knowledge, Psychology | Behavior, Stories

The real test of intelligence is the degree to which you are willing to “non-conform” in order to do the right thing.

Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Concepts, Ethics | Integrity | Morality, Intelligence | Knowledge

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

Author: Isaac Asimov | Subjects: America, Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, International