“No man knows what he can do until he tries.”
Carter G. Woodson book The Mis-Education of the Negro
Source: The Mis-Education of the Negro
“The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”
Source: Self-Reliance
Last update March 27, 2026. History
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Ralph Waldo Emerson727
American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882Related quotes
“No one knows what he can do till he tries.”
Publilio Siro Latin writer
Maxim 786
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
“It is precisely what he does not know which may destroy him.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) British artist
X magazine (1959-62)
Context: The Art of painting is itself an intensely personal activity. It may be labouring the obvious to say so but it is too little recognised in art journalism now that a picture is a unique and private event in the life of the painter: an object made alone with a man and a blank canvas... A real painting is something which happens to the painter once in a given minute; it is unique in that it will never happen again and in this sense is an impossible object. It is judged by the painter simply as a success or failure without qualification. And it is something which happens in life not in art: a picture which was merely the product of art would not be very interesting and could tell us nothing we were not already aware of. The old saying, “what you don’t know can’t hurt you”, expresses the opposite idea to that which animates the painter before his canvas. It is precisely what he does not know which may destroy him.
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is himself. He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what he is nor what the world is.
VIII, 52
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire
Julian (emperor) (331–363) Roman Emperor, philosopher and writer
Now this is very different in the case of men, for theirs is a double nature mixed up in one, that of soul and body; the former divine, the latter full of darkness and obscurity: hence naturally arise warfare and discord between the two.
Upon the Sovereign Sun (362)
Max Ernst (1891–1976) German painter, sculptor and graphic artist
Quote from 'Max Ernst', exhibition catalogue, Galerie Stangl, Munich, 1967, U.S., pp.6-7, as cited in Edward Quinn, Max Ernst. 1984, Poligrafa, Barcelona. p. 12
1951 - 1976
