Richard Wilbur Quotes

What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.

Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.

Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

Our ignorance will always remain greater than our knowledge.

There is no greater unknown than the sea and no greater mystery than a lost ship.

There's the know. And there's the unknown. And what separates the two is the door, and that's what i wanta be. Ahh wanna be th' dooooooooorrr...

The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery.

I could live a thousand years and still not know everything, still not have tried anything.

Going after the unknown is always fascinating, I think. It becomes part of your life, this desire to know.

Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.

If there wasn't mystery, people wouldn't have anything to ponder. If you already knew everything, you wouldn't have anything to think about and life would just be really boring.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors.

In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.

You can only maintain your interest if you're travelling more in ignorance than knowledge.

One of the things I do know is we know very little about our universe. Even though we think we know a lot, and we do know a lot more than we used to, we have a lot to learn about our universe.

All writing is that structure of revelation. There's something you want to find out. If you know everything up front in the beginning, you really don't need to read further if there's nothing else to find out.

What you don't know intrigues you more than what you do know.

We may not know the whole story in our lifetime.

What you know is always a little less attractive to you than what you don't know.

An unknown must be recognized as being unknown in order to be explored.

I'll never know everything. My life would be a lot worse if there was nothing I knew the answers about - and if there was nothing I didn't know the answers about.