
“If you don't know your history, you don't know who you are. Holds true for nations too.”
Twitter (17 Oct 2017) https://twitter.com/jbf1755/status/920253923209904128
Variant: Professor Johnston often said that if you didn't know history, you didn't know anything. You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree.
Source: Timeline
“If you don't know your history, you don't know who you are. Holds true for nations too.”
Twitter (17 Oct 2017) https://twitter.com/jbf1755/status/920253923209904128
“You don't get anything worth getting by pretending to know things you don't know.”
Sam Harris, Big Think Sam Harris On Death http://bigthink.com/ideas/3127 (July 4, 2007)
2000s
Context: We just don’t teach people how to grieve. You know, religion is the epitome, the antithesis of teaching your children how to grieve. You tell your child that, “Grandma is in heaven”, and there’s nothing to be sad about. That’s religion. It would be better to equip your child for the reality of this life, which is, you know, we... death is a fact. And we don’t know what happens after death. And I’m not pretending to know that you get a dial tone after death. I don’t know what happens after the physical brain dies. I don’t know what the relationship between consciousness and the physical world is. I don’t think anyone does know. Now I think there are many reasons to be doubtful of naïve conceptions about the soul, and about this idea that you could just migrate to a better place after death. But I simply don’t know about what... I don’t know what I believe about death. And I don’t think it’s necessary to know in order to live as sanely and ethically and happily as possible. I don’t think you get... You don't get anything worth getting by pretending to know things you don't know.
“You don't know me; you never knew my heart. No man knows my history.”
History of the Church 6:317 (7 April 1844)
1840s, King Follett discourse (1844)
Context: You don't know me; you never knew my heart. No man knows my history. I cannot tell it: I shall never undertake it. I don't blame any one for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself.... When I am called by the trump of the archangel and weighed in the balance, you will all know me then.
“You don't have to be part of a couple to be happy, you know.”
Source: Alice Alone
Wonderful World
Song lyrics, The Wonderful World of Sam Cooke (1960)
Source: To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue (2000), p. 50
“The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know.”
As quoted in Plain Speaking : An Oral Biography of Harry S Truman (1974) by Merle Miller, p. 26
“I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.”