John Barth Quotes

Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic. The man who knows nothing thinks he is teaching others what he has just learned himself; the man who knows a great deal can't imagine that what he is saying is not common knowledge, and speaks more indifferently.

I'm confident that I'm as intelligent as many people, but I know that I'm not as intelligent as some. So in the presence of hyperintelligent people, I'm a shrinking violet because I don't want to look like a fool. I know a little about a lot and a lot about a little.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows.

The top experts in the world are ardent students. The day you stop learning, you're definitely not an expert.

Those who have knowledge are more confident than those who have no knowledge, and they are more confident after they have learned than before.

I have seldom seen much ostentation and much learning met together.

You better educate yourself. You don't stand in the front of the line unless you're up there because you know everything that's involved.

Who does not understand should either learn, or be silent.

No science is speedily learned by the noblest genius without tuition.

As all born teachers, he was primarily a student.

He continues to teach because it provides him with a livelihood; also because it teaches him humility, brings it home to him who he is in the world. The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing.

Teachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did, they would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only be received.

Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.

The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn-the less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything.

Learning is the very essence of humility . . .

Education is the miracle; I'm just the worker.

Though a man be wise it is no shame for him to live and learn.

While we teach, we learn.

I think I know it all, relatively speaking.

Plus, teaching brings home to you very fast that you actually know nothing. I didn't realize that before.

I don't know much, but I like talking to people who know a lot more than I do.

Good education is so important. We do need to look at the way people are taught. It not just about qualifications to get a job. It's about being educated.

If you learn something new every day, you can teach something new every day.

Teach and practice, practice and teach - that is all we have; that is all we are good for; that is all we ever ought to do.