Thabo Mbeki Quotes

I never stop reading. I read everything, and I read every day. If you never read anything, be curious. Curiosity is the true foundation of education, reading things that we've factually already agreed on, and I love reading books. With that said, it's more important that you ask the question 'why.'

The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.

Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.

I think the appropriate kind of skepticism is this: you've got to be asking questions all the time, you've also got to make sure that you're doing so in the spirit of genuinely wanting to find the answers - and that also means being open. I battle with this: I know I tend to be very skeptical and as a result, I veer towards the dismissive. But being aware of the tendency, I like to challenge my own skepticism and make sure it's not just knee-jerk. You need to be skeptical towards yourself as well. When you're only skeptical outwards you've got an unbalanced skepticism.

My mom was really vigorous about making sure that we saw things and that we questioned things. Education was so important to both of my parents.

I'm not quite pompous enough to think of myself as an educator or a man capable of definitive refutation of falsehoods.

The learned man knows that he is ignorant.

The willingness to keep learning is, I think, the most important thing about trying to be good at anything. You never want to stop learning.

And when I started college, I think I was good at two things: arguing and asking questions.

An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't.

The power to question is the basis of all human progress.

Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.

The brainy class is made up of individuals who think for themselves and beyond formal education are continuous learners who tend to be self-taught.

Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that, by the time they leave school, every boy and girl should know how much they don’t know and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it

Doubt is the origin of wisdom.

You want to question what is important and why is it important. I don't have all the answers, but I'm very curious to know and learn.

I want to see myself as a student. Keep learning, keep improving, keep your eyes and ears open.

A man learns all his life and dies the day he thinks that he has learnt everything.

You always need to be curious and study.

I say with my own authority that if you go on questioning without accepting anybody's answer, including mine, by and by you will find that the answer is not found but the question disappears.

Our understanding of the world around us is constantly being redefined and expanded, and so therefore, it is wiser to be passionate about seeking for truth than knowing it.

That's healthy and good for us that there are people who are prepared to question what we are doing.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete.

I've never stopped learning.

Clarity and consistency are not enough: the quest for truth requires humility and effort.