William John Macquorn Rankine (1820–1872) civil engineer
p, 125
"On the Harmony of Theory and Practice in Mechanics" (Jan. 3, 1856)
Source: Oak Openings or The bee-hunter (1848), Ch. XI
William John Macquorn Rankine (1820–1872) civil engineer
p, 125
"On the Harmony of Theory and Practice in Mechanics" (Jan. 3, 1856)
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) English poet
Thesis and Antithesis http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/C/CloughArthurHugh/verse/poemsproseremains/antithesis.html, st. 4.
William Burnet Wright (1836–1924) American clergyman
Source: Master and Men (1894), pp. 39-40
F. Anstey (1856–1934) English novelist and journalist
Source: Tourmalin's Time Cheques (1885), Chapter 3, “The Third Cheque”
George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist
The Fantastic Imagination (1893)
Context: "Suppose my child ask me what the fairytale means, what am I to say?"
If you do not know what it means, what is easier than to say so? If you do see a meaning in it, there it is for you to give him. A genuine work of art must mean many things; the truer its art, the more things it will mean. If my drawing, on the other hand, is so far from being a work of art that it needs THIS IS A HORSE written under it, what can it matter that neither you nor your child should know what it means? It is there not so much to convey a meaning as to wake a meaning. If it do not even wake an interest, throw it aside. A meaning may be there, but it is not for you. If, again, you do not know a horse when you see it, the name written under it will not serve you much.
Horace Mann (1796–1859) American politician
Lecture 6
Lectures on Education (1855)
Context: The most ignorant are the most conceited. Unless a man knows that there is something more to be known, his inference is, of course, that he knows every thing. Such a man always usurps the throne of universal knowledge, and assumes the right of deciding all possible questions. We all know that a conceited dunce will decide questions extemporaneous which would puzzle a college of philosophers, or a bench of judges. Ignorant and shallow-minded men do not see far enough to see the difficulty. But let a man know that there are things to be known, of which he is ignorant, and it is so much carved out of his domain of universal knowledge. And for all purposes of individual character, as well as of social usefulness, it is quite as important for a man to know the extent of his own ignorance as it is to know any thing else. To know how much there is that we do not know, is one of the most valuable parts of our attainments; for such knowledge becomes both a lesson of humility and a stimulus to exertion.
Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942) Author, Theosophist
Source: The Esoteric Tradition (1935), Chapter 2
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer
Source: " A Case of Voluntary Ignorance http://www.christiebooks.com/ChristieBooksWP/2013/11/a-case-of-voluntary-ignorance-by-aldous-huxley/" in Collected Essays (1959)