Douglas Hofstadter Quotes

In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.

I don't feel it incumbent on me to make sense of everything.

Indeed, the most important product of knowledge is ignorance.

Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.

Sometimes attaining the deepest familiarity with a question is our best substitute for actually having the answer.

To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance.

Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.

When it comes to comedy, it might be interesting to know why an airplane works, but really? Maybe it's better not to know why certain things work. Just fly the thing, and if nothing falls apart, you'll be fine.

It's very hard to know what wisdom is.

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

I still haven’t figured it out completely.

I do not know everything; still many things I understand.

I never am really satisfied that I understand anything; because, understand it well as I may, my comprehension can only be an infinitesimal fraction of all I want to understand about the many connections and relations which occur to me, how the matter in question was first thought of or arrived at, etc., etc.

The more I see, the less I know.

The more I know, the less I understand

We cannot understand. The best is perhaps what we understand least.

Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment, not knowing what an explanation would even look like.

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

Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.

Two half philosophers will probably never a whole metaphysician make.

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

We don't know all the answers. If we knew all the answers we'd be bored, wouldn't we? We keep looking, searching, trying to get more knowledge.