“All that that I learn just teaches me that I know nothing.”

Source: The Lady of the Rivers

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "All that that I learn just teaches me that I know nothing." by Philippa Gregory?
Philippa Gregory photo
Philippa Gregory 47
English novelist 1954

Related quotes

Amy Winehouse photo
Robin Hobb photo
Socrates photo

“As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

See All I know is that I know nothing on Wikipedia for a detailed account of the origins of this attribution.

μοι νυνὶ γέγονεν ἐκ τοῦ διαλόγου μηδὲν εἰδέναι· ὁπότε γὰρ τὸ δίκαιον μὴ οἶδα ὅ ἐστιν, σχολῇ εἴσομαι εἴτε ἀρετή τις οὖσα τυγχάνει εἴτε καὶ οὔ, καὶ πότερον ὁ ἔχων αὐτὸ οὐκ εὐδαίμων ἐστὶν ἢ εὐδαίμων.

Hence the result of the discussion, as far as I'm concerned, is that I know nothing, for when I don't know what justice is, I'll hardly know whether it is a kind of virtue or not, or whether a person who has it is happy or unhappy.

Republic, 354b-c (conclusion of book I), as translated by M.A. Grube in Republic (Grube Edition) (1992) revised by C.D.C. Reeve, p. 31

Confer Apology 21d (see above), Theaetetus 161b (see above) and Meno 80d1-3: "So now I do not know what virtue is; perhaps you knew before you contacted me, but now you are certainly like one who does not know."

Confer Cicero, Academica, Book I, section 1 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0032%3Abook%3D1: "ipse se nihil scire id unum sciat ("He himself thinks he knows one thing, that he knows nothing"). Often quoted as "scio me nihil scire" or "scio me nescire." A variant is found in von Kues, De visione Dei, XIII, 146 (Werke, Walter de Gruyter, 1967, p. 312): "...et hoc scio solum, quia scio me nescire... [I know alone, that (or because) I know, that I do not know]." In the modern era, the Latin quote was back-translated to Greek as "ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα", hèn oîda hóti oudèn oîda).

Confer Diogenes Laertius, II.32 (see above)
Misattributed

Benjamin Franklin photo

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

There is no evidence that Franklin said this. Scholars believe the saying comes from the Xunzi.
Additional information may be read at the following websites:
http://dakinburdick.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/tell-me-and-i-forget/
http://www.quora.com/History/Where-and-when-did-Benjamin-Franklin-say-Tell-me-and-I-forget-teach-me-and-I-may-remember-involve-me-and-I-learn
http://gazettextra.com/weblogs/word-badger/2013/mar/24/whose-quote-really/
Misattributed

George Long photo

“If you merely teach dogmas dogmatically, you are not teaching in the sense in which I understand teaching… and learning… does not consist merely in knowing: it is not learning unless there is some corresponding doing.”

George Long (1800–1879) English classical scholar

An Old Man's Thoughts on Many Things, Of Education I
Context: I have said nothing about religious teaching as one of the means of forming a good character.... I, who am not a teacher of religion, do not presume to say how it should be taught, so taught as to be practical. If you merely teach dogmas dogmatically, you are not teaching in the sense in which I understand teaching... and learning... does not consist merely in knowing: it is not learning unless there is some corresponding doing.

Richard Bach photo

“Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, and teachers.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Andy Warhol photo

“If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface; of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There's nothing behind it.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

1963 - 1967
Source: Andy, My true Story 3, Gretchen Berg, Los Angeles Free Press (17 March 1967); as quoted in Andy Warhol, retrospective, New York and Boston Museum of modern Art & Bullfinch Press / Little Brown, 1989, pp. 457 – 67

John Cleese photo

“When I was teaching, the headmaster told me "You know, the sad thing about true stupidity is that you can do absolutely nothing about it."”

John Cleese (1939) actor from England

A "tweet" by John Cleese on his @JohnCleese [verified] Twitter account, 4 Apr 2017

Gene Wolfe photo

“Most Christians know next to nothing about the life and teachings of Christ and are afraid to learn, sensing that the knowledge will upset their preconceptions.”

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

"Sun of Helioscope", in Castle of the Otter (1982), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

Related topics