
“Not here to worship what is known, but to question it.”
Episode 11: "Knowledge or Certainty"
Source: The Ascent of Man (1973)
Context: The symbol of the University is the iron statue outside the Rathskeller of a barefoot goose girl that every student kisses at graduation. The University is a Mecca to which students come with something less than perfect faith. It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known but to question it.
“Not here to worship what is known, but to question it.”
excerpt from letter to J. M. Szabados (30 November 1965), quoted in "Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track The Letters of Richard P. Feynman" (2005) by Michelle Feynman and Carl Feynman, p. 206
“The most important question a human being has to face… What is it? The question, Why are we here?”
"“Why Are We Here?”, in The Watchtower (2006) http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2006768?q=Elie+Wiesel&p=par
“Often, in great discovery the most important thing is that a certain question is found.”
Source: Productive thinking, 1945, p. 123
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Context: I have given you my definition of blasphemy, and now the question arises, what is worship? Who is a worshiper? What is prayer? What is real religion? Let me answer these questions.
Good, honest, faithful work, is worship. The man who ploughs the fields and fells the forests; the man who works in mines, the man who battles with the winds and waves out on the wide sea, controlling the commerce of the world; these men are worshipers. The man who goes into the forest, leading his wife by the hand, who builds him a cabin, who makes a home in the wilderness, who helps to people and civilize and cultivate a continent, is a worshiper.
Labor is the only prayer that Nature answers; it is the only prayer that deserves an answer, — good, honest, noble work. A woman whose husband has gone down to the gutter, gone down to degradation and filth; the woman who follows him and lifts him out of the mire and presses him to her noble heart, until he becomes a man once more, this woman is a worshiper. Her act is worship.
The poor man and the poor woman who work night and day, in order that they may give education to their children, so that they may have a better life than their father and mother had; the parents who deny themselves the comforts of life, that they may lay up something to help their children to a higher place -- they are worshipers; and the children who, after they reap the benefit of this worship, become ashamed of their parents, are blasphemers.
The man who sits by the bed of his invalid wife, -- a wife prematurely old and gray, -- the husband who sits by her bed and holds her thin, wan hand in his as lovingly, and kisses it as rapturously, as passionately, as when it was dimpled, -- that is worship; that man is a worshiper; that is real religion.
Philosophy : the basics (Fifth Edition, 2013), Introduction
His views on his multi-skills in p. 168.
Quote, Thought Leaders
Language Education in a Knowledge Context (1980)
Context: What students know is no longer the most important measure of an education. The true test is the ability of students and graduates to engage with what they do not know, and to work out a solution. They must also be able to reach conclusions that constitute the basis for informed judgements. The ability to make judgements that are grounded in solid information, and employ careful analysis, should be one of the most important goals for any educational endeavor. As students develop this capability, they can begin to grapple with the most important and difficult step: to learn to place such judgements in an ethical framework. For all these reasons, there is no better investment that individuals, parents and the nation can make than an investment in education of the highest possible quality. Such investments are reflected, and endure, in the formation of the kind of social conscience that our world so desperately needs.
Foreword to Excellence in Education (2003) http://www.agakhanacademies.org/general/vision<!-- Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa brochure p. 3 http://www.akdn.org/publications/case_study_academies_mombasa.pdf, also quoted at The Aga Khan Academies http://www.agakhanacademies.org/mombasa/student-projects -->