Epictetus Quotes

It's sad that we never get trained to leave assumptions behind.

If you already think you are correct and there's nothing else you can learn in life, then I think you are in trouble.

Indeed, the most important product of knowledge is ignorance.

I'm quite a curious person. I don't mind being the one who doesn't know things, a role I often play in QI.

You don't have to have all the answers all the time. But the best thing to know is what you don't know.

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth.

It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.

For those who do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while.

Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to un-know.

Wisdom comes out of dialogue so you have to develop the capacity to expose your own ignorance in order that they may discover their own wisdom.

A man remains ignorant because he loves ignorance, and chooses ignorant thoughts; a man becomes wise because he loves wisdom and chooses wise thoughts.

Those who lack all idea that it is possible to be wrong can learn nothing except know-how.

Intellectual modesty is humility as to what I know; intellectual humility is modesty as to what I do not know

The ignorant are to be found as much among the educated as among the uneducated.

When you think you know it all, there's not much that you'll learn.

He that cometh to seek after knowledge, with a mind to scorn, shall be sure to find matter for his humour, but no matter for his instruction.

We know less when we erroneously think we know than when we recognize that we don't.

Wisdom comes to those who learn nothing, unlearn everything.

You don't want to know the Truth, you want to know the truth as you understand it. This is the greatest barrier to your enlightenment. You think you already know the truth! You think you already understand how it is. So you agree with everything you see or hear or read that falls into the paradigm of your understanding, and reject everything which does not.

Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to un-know.

Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what's really there.

How prone we are to come to the consideration of every question with heads and hearts pre-occupied! How prone to shrink from any opinion, however reasonable, if it be opposed to any, however unreasonable, of our own! How disposed are we to judge, in anger, those who call upon us to think, and encourage us to enquire! To question our prejudices seems nothing less than sacrilege; to break the chains of our ignorance, nothing short of impiety!

We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think in fact they do so.

Knowing that we don't know it's humility; thinking that we know what we don't know, is sickness.