Knowing quotes
3.9K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside knowing — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"We are an intelligent species caught in an historical process. No generation which proceeded us knew what was going on, and there is no reason to assume that we know what's going on or that the generation which follows us will know what's going on. And what kind of trip is it anyway to insist on knowing what's going on?"
"The general remedy of those who are uneasy without knowing the cause is change of place."
"It is natural for every man uninstructed to murmur at his condition, because, in the general infelicity of life, he feels his own miseries without knowing that they are common to all the rest of the species; and, therefore, though he will not be less sensible of pain by being told that others are equally tormented, he will at least be freed from the temptation of seeking, by perpetual changes, that ease which is no where to be found, and though his diseases still continue, he escapes the hazard of exasperating it by remedies."
"Affectation naturally counterfeits those excellences which are placed at the greatest distance from possibility of attainment, because, knowing our own defects, we eagerly endeavor to supply them with artificial excellence."
"There is something I want-something I have come to get, and she fell deeper and deeper without knowing quite what it was, with her eyes closed."
"Knowing how bad you could be is a great encouragement to being good."
"IT'S THE EXPRESSION ON THEIR LITTLE FACES I LIKE, said the Hogfather. "You mean sort of fear and awe and not knowing whether to laugh or cry or wet their pants?" YES. NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL BELIEF."
"If there's one thing that really annoys a god, it's not knowing something."
"It's always surprising to be reminded that while you're watching and thinking about people, all knowing and superior, they're watching and thinking about you, right back at you."
"That's one form of magic, of course." "What, just knowing things?" "Knowing things that other people don't know."
"Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom."
"Knowing things is magical, if other people don't know them."
"By the time you've reached your sixties, you do know that one day you will die, and knowing that is at least the beginning of wisdom."
"But no man's a hero to himself. I've lived with me a lifetime. I know everything worth knowing about myself--" ~Something Wicked This Way Comes"
"Acting without knowing takes you right off the cliff."
"Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know, is bad, or amoral, at least. You can't act if you don't know. Acting without knowing takes you right off the cliff."
"I like bringing little subtle complexities to a character. It's all about the subtext. No one can really describe or fully know another human being, even if they get a hook on them. It's more about instinctively knowing whether you like somebody or not."
"I would rather go out of politics having the feeling that I had done what was right than stay in with the approval of all men, knowing in my heart that I have acted as I ought not to."
"What I sell is the higher knowledge of knowing whats next and not following the trend of whats now."
"And I'm convinced that knowing the names of things braces people up."
