“And yet it will be obvious that it is difficult to really know of what sort each thing is.”

— Democritus

Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Fragments

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "And yet it will be obvious that it is difficult to really know of what sort each thing is." by Democritus?

Democritus 81

Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of t…

Related quotes

“Now, that we do not really know of what sort each thing is, or is not, has often been shown.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Fragments

“The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you or anybody else knows you are and as everything in living is made up of finding out what you are it is extraordinarily difficult really not to know what you are and yet to be that thing.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Source: Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), Ch. 3

“There is no set sort of rules, or no set sort of formula to the way we work in the studio … so it's difficult to know … what we'll move on to next.”

Enya (1961) Irish singer, songwriter, and musician

KSCA interview (1996)
Context: There is no set sort of rules, or no set sort of formula to the way we work in the studio... so it's difficult to know... what we'll move on to next. We don't like to say, "Never, no we'd never do this"... But, we... like the setup as far as there's only three people in the studio... because the work is very personal, very intimate, very emotional... and that is very important to the album.

“The most difficult thing is to know what we do know, and what we do not know.”

P. D. Ouspensky book Tertium Organum

Source: Tertium Organum (1912; 1922), Ch. I
Context: The most difficult thing is to know what we do know, and what we do not know.
Therefore, desiring to know anything, we shall before all else determine WHAT we accept as given, and WHAT as demanding definition and proof; that is, determine WHAT we know already, and WHAT we wish to know.
In relation to the knowledge of the world and of ourselves, the conditions would be ideal could we venture to accept nothing as given, and count all as demanding definition and proof. In other words, it would be best to assume that we know nothing, and make this our point of departure.
But unfortunately such conditions are impossible to create. Knowledge must start from some foundation, something must be recognized as known; otherwise we shall be obliged always to define one unknown by means of another.

“How to make a list? Collecting the data, that's the easy bit. Sorting it into categories is slightly more difficult. Shortening the list is the most difficult part. That a really difficult problem.”

Joe Armstrong (1950–2019) British computer scientist

The Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science

“You seem to be going in for sincerity today. It isn't becoming to you, really — except as an obvious pose. Be as artificial as you are, I advise. There's a sort of sincerity in that, you know. And, after all, you must confess you like that better.”

Eugene O'Neill The Hairy Ape

Aunt: Scene 2
The Hairy Ape (1922)

“I love the idea that something would be whimsical, and like "delightful", you know, but also disgusting — so I like this sort of, you know, a really gnarly guitar — really gross, disgusting guitar and then a — really a whimsical… — it's one of those things you can only describe in sort of awkward hand gestures and eye motions. Imagine!”

St. Vincent (musician) (1982) American singer-songwriter

On one of her compositions on the album Actor, in an interview for Billboard magazine (20 March 2009)

“Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

“With the car we had, getting a pole was sort of obvious.”

Michael Schumacher (1969) German racing driver

Schumacher (2006) cited in: " Schumi breaks Senna pole record http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/4933602.stm" BBC SPORT News, Saturday, 22 April 2006, 13:04 GMT 14:04 UK
The BBC SPORT article comments: "Michael Schumacher grabbed his 66th career pole position at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola to break the late Ayrton Senna's all-time record."

“Each of us, face to face with other men, is clothed with some sort of dignity, but we know only too well all the unspeakable things that go on in the heart.”

Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) Italian dramatist, novelist, short story writer, and poet, Nobel Prize for Literature laureate

Source: Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays

“And yet it will be obvious that it is difficult to really know of what sort each thing is.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Democritus 81

Related quotes

Related topics