Avicenna Quotes

We do not know a truth without knowing its cause.

Why is this thus? What is the reason for this thusness?

A fact is like a sack - it won't stand up if it's empty. To make it stand up, first you have to put in it all the reasons and feelings that caused it in the first place.

Science is wonderfully equipped to answer the question 'How?' but it gets terribly confused when you ask the question 'Why?'

Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of facts.

To know truly is to know by causes.

I'm just quizzical about how things work and why things are.

There is a reason for everything.

An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.

Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.

Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you, life where things aren't.

All things make sense; you just have to fathom how they make sense.

There is really nothing more to say-except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.

I am one of the people who love the why of things.

Knowledge consists in understanding the evidence that establishes the fact, not in the belief that it is a fact.

Knowledge is justified belief.

I understand HOW. I do not understand WHY

The things of which we want the proof are those we know the best.

Implication is thus the very texture of our web of belief, and logic is the theory that traces it.

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.

Intuition does not in itself amount to knowledge, yet cannot be disregarded by philosophers and psychologists.

Intuition and concepts constitute... the elements of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge.

I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.

Anything that gives us new knowledge gives us an opportunity to be more rational.

Logic is a poor model of cause and effect.