“We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.”

—  John Archibald Wheeler

Scientific American (1992), Vol. 267.

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 "We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignor…" by John Archibald Wheeler?
John Archibald Wheeler photo
John Archibald Wheeler 16
American physicist 1911–2008

Related quotes

H.P. Lovecraft photo

“We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”

H.P. Lovecraft book The Call of Cthulhu

Variant: We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of the infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.
Source: The Call of Cthulhu

Daniel Handler photo

“A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded.”

Daniel Handler (1970) American novelist, children's writer, creator of Lemony Snicket

“We cannot afford to ignore HIV/AIDS. We can only ignore this battle at the cost of being regarded by future generations of Pacific Islanders as lacking the will, the foresight, the understanding to tackle this issue, which threatens our very future.”

Epeli Ganilau (1951) Fijian politician

Address to the Pan Pacific HIV/AIDS Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, October 2005

H.P. Lovecraft photo

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of the infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”

H.P. Lovecraft book The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

Source: The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

Isaac Bashevis Singer photo

“Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.”

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991) Polish-born Jewish-American author

The New York Times (3 December 1978)

Arthur Stanley Eddington photo

“Only here and there does it arise to the level of consciousness, but from such islands proceeds all knowledge. The latter includes our knowledge of the physical world.”

Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) British astrophysicist

Source: The Nature of the Physical World (1928), Ch. 13 Reality
Context: The mind-stuff is not spread in space and time. But we must presume that in some other way or aspect it can be differentiated into parts. Only here and there does it arise to the level of consciousness, but from such islands proceeds all knowledge. The latter includes our knowledge of the physical world. <!-- p. 277

Anne Morrow Lindbergh photo

“No man is an island,' said John Donne. I feel we are all islands -- in a common sea.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea

Source: Gift from the Sea

William James photo

“Out of my experience, such as it is (and it is limited enough) one fixed conclusion dogmatically emerges, and that is this, that we with our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves. … But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom. Just so there is a continuum of cosmic consciousness, against which our individuality builds but accidental fences, and into which our several minds plunge as into a mother-sea or reservoir.”

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

"Confidences of a 'Psychical Researcher'" http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/james/psychical/7_8.cfm, in The American Magazine, Vol. 68 (1909), p. 589
Often (mis)quoted as: "We are like islands in the sea; separate on the surface but connected in the deep", or: "Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest, which co-mingle their roots in the darkness underground."
1900s

Guy P. Harrison photo

“When we jump to a conclusion before doing research, we tend to look for evidence that supports our beliefs and ignore facts that contradict them. This deprives us of the opportunity to grow our knowledge.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author
Mohamed Nasheed photo

“For us, climate change is real. We are already relocating people from 16 islands affected by rising seas to other areas of our country”

Mohamed Nasheed (1967) Maldivian politician, 4th president of the Maldives

Maldives
Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed told Costas Christ of National Geographic, quoted on Parent Herald, "Maldives: Is The Maldives Sinking? Only 30 Years Until It Becomes Next Atlantis" http://www.parentherald.com/articles/30490/20160321/maldives-sinking-30-years-until-becomes-next-atlantis.htm, March 21, 2016.

Related topics