“He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.”

Socrates, 16.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers

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 "He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance." by Diogenes Laërtius?
Diogenes Laërtius photo
Diogenes Laërtius 107
biographer of ancient Greek philosophers 180–240

Related quotes

Socrates photo

“Ηe knew nothing except just the fact of his ignorance.”

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

Alternate translation: I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

II.32. Original Greek: εἰδέναι μὲν μηδὲν πλὴν αὐτὸ τοῦτο [εἰδέναι].
Diogenes Laertius

Shannon Hale photo
Henry Adams photo

“The true American knew something of the facts, but nothing of the feelings; he read the letter but he never felt the law.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

John Buchan photo
Victor Hugo photo

“Cimourdain knew everything and nothing. He knew everything about science, and nothing at all about life. Hence his inflexibility.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Part 2, Book 1, Ch. 2
Ninety-Three (1874)
Context: Cimourdain was one of those men who have a voice within them, and who listen to it. Such men seem absent-minded; they are not; they are all attention.
Cimourdain knew everything and nothing. He knew everything about science, and nothing at all about life. Hence his inflexibility. His eyes were bandaged like Homer's Themis. He had the blind certainty of the arrow, which sees only the mark and flies to it. In a revolution, nothing is more terrible than a straight line. Cimourdain went straight ahead, as sure as fate.
Cimourdain believed that, in social geneses, the extreme point is the solid earth; an error peculiar to minds which replace reason with logic.

Aphra Behn photo

“He that knew all that ever Learning writ,
Knew only this - that he knew nothing yet.”

Aphra Behn (1640–1689) British playwright, poet, translator and fiction writer

The Emperor of the Moon, Act III, sc. iii.

Oscar Wilde quote: “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
Oscar Wilde photo

Related topics