Thomas Merton Quotes

If you think you know it all, you are missing something.

None are so fallible as those who are sure they're right.

The more you think you know, the more closed-minded you'll be.

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

The losers in life think they have all the answers. They can’t learn because they’re too busy telling everyone what they know.

The kind of man who always thinks that he is right, that his opinions, his pronouncements, are the final word, when once exposed shows nothing there. But a wise man has much to learn without a loss of dignity.

The biggest fool is the one who thinks he knows it all.

It's most presumptuous to believe we already know all the answers and will never get any more big surprises.

Folly always knows the answer.

The longer I'm alive, the more I realize how little I know. Pretending that you know everything about every topic, and being very vocal about it? That's an instant turnoff.

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.

It's hubris to think that the way we see things is everything there is.

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Even those of the intelligent who believe that they have a nostrum are too individualistic to combine with other intelligent men from whom they differ on minor points.

We live in a world in which data convey authority. But authority has a way of descending to certitude, and certitude begets hubris.

The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance.

To be proud of knowledge is to be blind with light.

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.

Many person might have achieved wisdom had they not supposed that they already possessed it.

A foolish man thinks he knows everything. A wise man knows he doesn't.

There is but a slight difference between the man who may be said to know nothing and him who thinks he knows everything.

A dogmatic tone is generally inspired by abysmal ignorance. The man who knows nothing thinks he is informing others of something which he has that moment learnt; the man who knows a great deal can scarcely believe that people are ignorant of what he is telling them, and speaks more diffidently.

What I learned is that it's arrogant to be certain of anything. The world is a complex place and only idiots or assholes think they know it all.

Many men would have arrived at wisdom had they not believed themselves to have arrived there already.

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.

He knows so little and knows it so fluently.