Often attributed to Plato, it cannot be found in any of his writings ( see this http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=796). The quote is attributed to Plato in A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern (page 560) by Tryon Edwards.
Misattributed
“It is misleading in a crucial way to view information as something that can be poured into an empty vessel, like a fluid or even energy.”
Anatol Rapoport (1956) "The Promise and Pitfalls of Information Theory"; AS quoted in: Peter Corning (2010) Holistic Darwinism, p. 364
1950s
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Anatol Rapoport 45
Russian-born American mathematical psychologist 1911–2007Related quotes
“Zero information is preferred to misleading or false information”
Jimmy Wales. Keynote speech, Wikimania, August 2006. May 19, 2006
About falseness
Australian Meeting of the British Association. Inaugural Address. August 20th, 1914.
“639. Emptie vessels sound most.”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“The Lord bestows his blessings there, where he finds the vessels empty.”
Source: The Imitation of Christ
De Abaitua interview (1998)
Context: New-age woolly-hat Glastonbury mystics weary me, sometimes, but they talk about energy, the energy of a place, of a person. We all know what they mean, but at the same time it has to be said that this is not energy that is going to show up on an autometer. We’re not talking about energy in the conventional sense that physics talks about energy. To me, energy is information – I think you can make that bold a statement. The only lines of energy that link up disparate sites in London are lines of information, that have been drawn by an informed mind. The energy that we put forth is information we have taken in. We will see a work of art and it will give us inspiration, it will give us energy. It’s given us information that we can turn to our own use and put out as something else. That’s the kind of energy that we – and psychogeography – are talking about.