Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.

I always thought it better to allow myself to doubt before I decided, than to expose myself to the misery, after I had decided, of doubting whether I had decided rightly and justly.

All through my life, when faced with a difficult decision, I always ask myself - where can I learn more. Make the choice to learn.

Doubt is a very important trait. Out of doubt comes thinking, decisions, choices. We learn stuff. We learn to make mistakes. Or not to.

Investing is about intellectual honesty. You want to know what you know. You want to know, mostly, what you don't know.

Skills acquisition is really at the heart of what it means to learn.

I think it's true we look forward to enormous amounts of information, but I think we would be better off if we thought about the kinds of wisdom and thoughtfulness that we need in order to handle the amount of information ahead.

I like to consume information. I like to learn.

The acquisition of knowledge need not be like listening to the Gregorian chant.

I know that science is very interested in answers, and I'm just happy with a good question.

The search for information gives me more confidence, because confidence arises from understanding.

I like my mind being stimulated. I like discovering new concepts.

What is education but a process by which a person begins to learn how to learn?

If you are ever uncomfortable or are unsure of something, you attribute it.

True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.

When you're put in a position where you're having to decide, Is this a good decision? Is this the right decision for everybody involved? - it makes me feel a little unsteady, unsure.

What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to think?

The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.

Where there is clarity, there is no choice. And where there is choice, there is misery. But then, why should I speak, since I know nothing?

I always think that we know so much more than one would have ever known before. But I don't know if that's really true.

When in doubt, doubt the doubt!

The origin of thinking is some perplexity, confusion or doubt.

Doubt is the vestibule which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom; therefore, when we are in doubt and puzzle out the truth by our own exertions, we have gained a something that will stay by us, and which will serve us again. But, if to avoid the trouble of the search we avail ourselves of the superior information of a friend, such knowledge will not remain with us; we have not bought but borrowed it.

In any organization there ought to be the possibility of discussion... fence sitting is an art, and it's difficult, and it's important to do, rather than to go headlong in one direction or the other. It's just better to have action, isn't it than to sit on the fence? Not if you're not sure which way to go, it isn't.

We may have doubts, but we control the present. We always have the choice to move forward with hope and confidence.